Peter Banalik - Metamorphosis

[edtheguy]

November 2016 (part 2)

The board agreed to all of my requests without batting an eye and asked if I had any other requests to propose. Not expecting that response, I only managed to splutter that I did not have any further requests.

I was so shocked that I almost forgot to thank them for their support. They then offered me a two year extension with a raise from 425k to 450k. I negotiated to 475k and they accepted. I guess that makes up my mind. I’m here for another two years. Let’s see if we can make them better than the last two.

That was a little too easy. Was I really worried about that for months? Mr. Kraft spoke to me briefly and when I expressed my surprise, he indicated that I had been on a kind of unofficial ‘probation’ for the last couple years. When they hired a manager that had no experience they were not going to just give me the keys ‘to their shiny car’ without seeing how I drove first. He said they felt that I had shown them enough for them to give me more control now. I’m not sure exactly what it is they think they’ve seen, but it’s good news for me. He also mentioned that on a personal note he was glad I had put an end to my inappropriate relationship and found a more suitable partner. Oops. I guess Jayden and I weren’t as incognito as I had thought.

I do wonder how Mike is going to take this - I didn’t see him anywhere after the meeting.

Jayden seems to like it just fine, she had the new team responsibilities already printed up and ready to go when I got to the office and had already scheduled a coaches meeting so I could go over the changes with the staff.

The first thing I did was meet with the coaches to tweak our formations. We will start with basically the same three tactics, just with four at the back. The ‘Shield’ tactic becomes a defensive, disciplined possession based 442. Sword is going to be a counter attacking 4231 and Cobra will be a control oriented 4213.

Next I met with Mike, apprehensively, to discuss exactly how we were going to work out responsibilities for staff hiring and chain of command. Mike, I was glad to learn, is still excited about taking the team forward. It turns out he had known that the old command structure was likely only going to be temporary all along. Apparently it was his role to mentor me and evaluate my performance. In which case I think I really owe him, he could have easily sabotaged me, but instead it appears he has been giving positive reports.

We agreed that I will be in charge of the coaching staff and Mike will be in charge of the rest of the staff. After our meeting we started looking at American born players for all positions.

My first official roster move was to offer Woodbury Dickoh and Apam out and ask Mike for suggestions at CD and right back, told the scouts to check out his suggestions.

Gianna, who is doing very well and is even running her own real estate agency now, took me out to dinner in Boston to celebrate and we had a very good time, as usual. The nice thing about her career going so well is that it keeps her busy enough that I actually get some time to myself when she's working, which makes it so much easier for me to enjoy our time together.

We received an agent offer for Mexican AMC Raul Suarez, the scouting report came back hopeful, so I offered him a trial. Same for DM Igor Nagornyi. They both showed up for their trials a few days before thanksgiving.

Since we are on the clock to evaluate them from the moment they arrive and I wasn’t about to tell any of the coaches they couldn’t spend thanksgiving with their families I wound up working over thanksgiving with the two trialists, which didn’t go over well with Gia. It’s clear she hasn’t actually been mad at me before, there wouldn’t have been any doubt if she was - it’s hard to miss.

Jayden sniping at Gia about her lack of understanding doesn’t make it any better for me either. It turns out I skated free of trouble with Gianna at the beginning of the month only to wind up hot water with her at the end of the month after all.

In a search for home grown players I invited 23 year old American AMC Dennis Flores and veteran FA Erick Avila for trials.

Poor use of our international slots has to be addressed - Our seven international slots are used by: Goncalves, Apam, Dickoh, Duylio, and Hajdarovic, somehow, according to MLS rules those five players account for all seven of our slots. We must have traded some or lost them somehow, I’d ask Mike to explain, but it’s not worth it. If we can somehow unload Apam and Dickoh it would be huge for our flexibility. We can’t use those slots, however many we have, on players that aren’t bona fide difference makers for us. For the past two years our best international has been Jermaine, who I barely even missed when he wasn't in the lineup.

Jayden seems to have made progress coming to grips with her own personal drama. For the time being at least she seems in good spirits and the office is running like a well oiled machine.

Now I just have to smooth things over with Gia about missing thanksgiving and maybe I can look forward to next season with a little optimism.

[edtheguy]

December 2016

Dennis Flores arrived for his trial, and he looks pretty good.The very next day Erick Avila showed up and the coaches didn’t think much of him but I’m interested.

Mike didn’t find anyone worth taking in either the December Waiver Draft or the famed re-entry draft this year.

Several teams made trade offers of draft picks for Farrell and Woodbury, but since both are american players - and we will need fullbacks this year - we aren’t in a position to ship either one out, especially for largely useless draft picks, so all offers were rejected and I de-listed Woodbury.

Montreal offered a contract to our trialist Dennis Flores, who looks useful, so we did as well.

Gia and I went to the Burn’s christmas party, which is where we met last year, and we stayed much longer than I did then. Michelle cornered Gia for quite a while when we first arrived and afterwards Gia’s mood was... unreadable; but she seemed to have a good evening. We went back to Gia’s place afterwards for some more holiday cheer and had a very nice night. I didn’t dare ask what she and Michelle talked about, but all seems to be forgiven... I hope.

On Saturday the 17th Dennis Flores signed with us, this means I won’t extend Steve Neumann, who has failed to establish himself over the last two years. So its a lateral move of home grown player for home grown player. Flores is younger but less versatile, so far in his career anyway.

I offered a trial to Kouassi N’Goran, who Mike Doesn’t like, but he would be a better international slot player than either Apam or Dickoh so I at least need to investigate him.

I received a news item reporting that Luke McCullough wants us to ‘rescue’ him from Doncaster. he would easily be our #1 central defender but we lack the transfer - er, allocation - funds, so no rescue operation can be mounted.

The Revolution people were still mostly wallflowers at the huge Kraft Sports Group holiday party, as the group's flagship team and its employees got most of the spotlight, but with Gia there it’s like being the most colorful flowers on the wall. This year though I didn’t even catch a glimpse of Jayden and her family. Jayden had been noncommittal when I asked her if she was going, so I can’t help but worry a little, but there isn't much I can do. This was also the one year anniversary Gianna and my first ‘official’ date, so I sprung some surprise holiday plans on Gia, which she seemed to appreciate. Hopefully this will help make amends for my ruining thanksgiving...

Ivorian central defender N’Goran arrived for his trial. He is only marginally better than what we have, but he would go to #1 on our depth charts. I wonder if I can just not register Apam and Dickoh….. So far no one has been foolish enough to take either one of them off our hands. I probably won’t offer N’Goran a contract anyway - to use up an international slot there really can’t be any doubts.

From December 23 through the 31st I actually took my first vacation since being employed by the Rev’s to spend Christmas through new Year’s with Gianna. We started by having a surprisingly mellow Christmas dinner and gift exchange with her family, after which we flew to Hawaii for the rest of the week, where Kate and her now fiancee Andrew met us as well as David - who is doing a lot of travelling himself through relationships he has built in the online competitive gaming scene. While we were there Gia gave me a very touching engraved bracelet and romantic card with a long and very caring message in it. She seems to be taking over a bigger and bigger portion of my personal life as time goes on.

I had more than fifty messages waiting when I returned from vacation and a rather grumpy personal assistant. I don’t think it is because of her personal life though, it felt more like it was because she and Gianna are still oil and water. Whatever the reason, Jayden’s disapproval bothered me less than it used to.

The 2017 schedule was released while we were on vacation, we will open the season March 4th at home vs Philadelphia. The cap/minimum were again raised, now to 3.84m/65k

We signed 17 year old left midfielder David Fricke from the academy, he is a prospect with good potential.

On the 31st Mike made a loan offer for American born right mid Joel Sonora, who is currently under contract to Boca Reserves but looks like a pretty good insurance policy for the injury prone Lee Nguyen.

We sent 2016 out in style with a big party at Gia’s new house. There were far more people there than I was comfortable with, between my large work ‘family’ (most of which actually showed up) and all of Gia’s real estate contacts, but I have to admit it was quite the impressive event. Now we will see what sort of follow up act 2017 can bring - whatever it brings it’s likely to be much different than the last couple years.

[tenthreeleader]

This is a nice read, Ed. Easy to follow and enjoyable. I haven't commented on you as much as I should but you've got a nice work going here.

[edtheguy]

Thank you tenthree - I appreciate the kind words, and I'm glad you are enjoying it! I am a couple seasons ahead of the story in FM, and looking back as I post here there are some team and game details I wish I'd included. I am hoping to put some more of those details in future seasons that will, hopefully, improve the 'football team' immersion without derailing the pace/story.

January 2017

As usual there wasn’t much point to the January board meeting but it did give us an excuse to go to dinner with the Burns once more. Mike and I spent most of the evening talking shop and the women, from what I heard, were focused on the never ending drama that came with the players relationships.

The first week of January was fairly busy. We sent a scout to watch Caleb Stanko and news stories quickly popped up reporting that he hoped our interest develops into something official. We probably won’t move for him at this time but we did finalize my first signing, 23 year old American CD Shane O’Neill, who will join in July when his contract at RMP expires.

This news was followed with the completion of the loan move for 20 year old American right midfielder Joel Sonora.

FC Dallas called to inquire about Andrew Jacobson, which the press immediately picked up on, I told them I wouldn’t be commenting.

The board announced friendlies with Atlanta Silverbacks, St. Louis FC, Edmonton FC and Montreal FC. I will probably look at adding at least one more friendly to the schedule as while we haven’t struggled with fitness the last couple years it wouldn’t hurt, and we have to iron out a little more tactical familiarity this season.

The second week was taken up largely by the ‘Super’draft, which I, once again, passed on attending. I can definitely live without fussing over the draft pool in the hopes of finding a slightly less marginal player to pick.

Superdraft (or as like to call it, the Mike and Tom show) Picks:

Will Torres, a left midfielder with potential to be key player.

Daniel Taylor, defender who can play right or center back and has the potential to be a quality player

Matt Vide, left back - not much potential.

Marc Kutney, center back, if everything goes right he might someday be useful.

Chad Moore, an attacking midfielder with almost no potential, rejected us. Darn.

Ugh. Not the most exciting catch... and we got an A in the media’s post draft recap, so those are the 'good' picks.

Gia and I once again made use of the time to go to a show that Kate recommended in New York. This year we made a weekend of it. I could get used to weekends like that.

Chris Kraft, who I am still following due to his relation to 2/3 of our board, is going to Harrisburg City Islanders on loan, which is probably a good idea - he had a hard time getting playing time in Philadelphia last season.

The last two weeks of the month were relatively slow, Udinese rejected a friendly proposal, the marketing department reported that season ticket sales are projected to be down this year - which probably just means we’ve been so bad we aren’t even worth heckling any more. Mike found Stefan Mitrovic, a central defender and proposed making a transfer offer for him. I asked for a second opinion from the scouting department and told Mike to go ahead. Our offer was accepted and Mike began contract negotiations.

We opened training camp with the annual team meeting - and this time everyone agreed it was going to be a good season. At the staff meeting Ian was now recommending 5 at the back, his recommendations are never boring.

Mitrovic rejected our contract offer and Freiburg immediately listed him for loan, but they want 100% of his 475k salary. No. Because MLS.

Gianna cleared as much time as she could from her schedule, which is slower in the winter anyway, so we could spend time together before the season starts. We are coming to a comfortable middle ground between my homebody tendencies and her hyper active social leanings and I have to admit it is kind of nice.

I also made a point of checking in with Jayden, who is still reluctant to talk about her personal life, before the hectic pre-season schedule took over and she basically said it still sucked, but she was dealing with it better. I truly hope she is.

[edtheguy]

February 2017

My first item to deal with for the week was a report from the coaching staff that Frances Dickoh’s training on the reserves has been disappointing. His coffin is running out of room for more nails.

I officially made former Rev CD A.J. Soares a transfer target and asked Mike for other suggestions at central defender. Mike reported that we were too far apart in AJ’s value. Unfortunately none of his other suggestions were worth it, so I told him to look at left backs..

The next report, which I received on the way to Atlanta for our first friendly, was more encouraging as our future defender Shane O’Neill had great game for RMP

2/4/17 vs Atlanta Silverbacks - friendly - started with new cobra (4-2-1-3 2DMW) tactic against weaker opposition fielding a 4-2-2-2 2DMW. Scored first and had all of the chances in the first half, to my great satisfaction we were often cutting off Atlanta attacks out wide. Atlanta scored on their only shot on goal. Switched to the new sword (4-2-3-1) at half, brought on all reserves at 6 mins. Finished with a 1-1 draw. One interesting note was we were behind in possession the entire game, which hasn’t been the case very often the last couple of years.

New England Revolution at Atlanta Silverbacks

1-1

15 Shots 7

4 On Target 1

6 Fouls 10

0 Yellow Cards 0

47% Possession 53%

Goals: Nguyen (10) Denissen (38)

Mike's suggestions for left back were all good, Rochdale’s Scott Tanser, Blackpool’s Clark Robinson and Minnesota United’s Donny Toia all scouted out pretty well. I told him to make a move for Tanser and Toia.

On the day after the Atlanta game Mike reported that the Toia transfer fell through already. There was also a news story on the web reporting that AJ Soares thinks a return to New England would be too good to turn down.

Mike was unable to reach a deal for any of the left backs, so I tasked the scouting staff with evaluating other possibilities.

One of the players I asked for a report on was Derek Oseide, and the press got wind of it and Jason Milne reported that I was targeting him as a long term replacement for Goncalves. Wrong on so many levels. Now Milne is just trying to unsettle my players.

2/11/17 at St. Louis FC - friendly - This time we’ll start with Sword - tweaked so the AMC is now a Treq - and change to Shield. Afterwards we will give some final touches to all three tactics for the last two friendlies. The revamped sword tactic wasn’t getting anywhere and we upped the mentality a tick to standard and the game opened up - for both teams and the half ended 1-1. Shield was solid, but let St. Louis think the game was theirs to take as they piled up possession and (long) shots, we were the team to score however and won 2-1.

New England Revolution at St. Louis FC

2-1

7 Shots 15

4 On Target 4

5 Fouls 26

0 Yellow Cards 0

51% Possession 49%

Goals: Nguyen (24) Martin (40) Fagundez (pen 61)

After the game it was time to sit down with Mike and make some roster decisions. I decided it was time to stop putting off the inevitable and offered Francis Dickoh mutual termination. Francis immediately asked to see me and after speaking with him he agreed to the contract termination.

This still leaves us over the boards 7.4m salary budget by 163k with O’Neills salary added. I will deal with that later if I have to. Our single biggest hit against the boards 7.4 million number is Jermaine’s 3m salary which is in its last year.

I reevaluated my decision to stand pat with our payroll the next day when I got the notice that the contract guarantee date was in one week. I went over the numbers again looking for options and decided to offer Onyekachi a mutual termination, which he said he would not accept under any circumstances. I went to the board and asked them to pay him his 170k to go away and they agreed, I refused to throw Mike under the bus for signing him though, and just said that the situation wasn’t right for either Apam or the team.

2/18/17 at FC Edmonton - friendly - Starting with cobra, which will be our preferred tactic - I hope - Edmonton came out and with an attacking tactic, but couldn’t get anything going against us as we were solid defensively, but only generated a few chances ourselves. Changed Juan to a DLF/s at half and it looked great right off the restart then we fizzed the rest of the half. Tried a poacher’s role at the end, but it didn’t seem to matter either. Will try DLF/A next game.

New England Revolution at FC Edmonton

1-0

12 Shots 10

5 On Target 1

7 Fouls 20

2 Yellow Cards 4

53% Possession 47%

Goals: Fagundez (2)

Tom reported during the game that Jermaine and Juan had no faith in my team talks and the team in general was finding it hard to motivate themselves to play for me. This doesn’t surprise me, my motivating skills are lacking, which is why I started letting Tom give the talks last season, his skills are at least above average. We will continue that way, I’ll only pitch in when there’s an easy ‘win’ in it for me.

I contacted the board to add a friendly with DCU on the 21st, for various reasons, they agreed.

Pre season predictions have us 11th in MLS, which is an improvement over last years prediction of 16th.

2/21/17 vs DC United - friendly - We looked the much better team for the first 60 minutes as everything worked and we built a two goal lead. Then the depth players came on and made sure they didn’t challenge for a starting role. Draw 2-2. Last years draftee Jim Flores might be the new Francis Dickoh as he single handedly presented DCU with scoring chance after scoring chance until they tied the game. We also had a central defender trialist, name unimportant, that ensured that his association with the club came to an end by his play in the game.

New England Revolution vs DC United

2-2

9 Shots 21

4 On Target 6

16 Fouls 13

3 Yellow Cards 2

47% Possession 53%

Goals: Nguyen (5) Agudelo (30) Castro (73) Espinola (75)

After the game came another dreaded visit from Dr. Allen as he informed me that Lee Nguyen would be out 2-3 weeks with a foot injury.

Feb 22nd Mike made a bid for Darmstadt defender Gideon Baah who hasn’t gotten in a competitive game for them this season and has done poorly in the non-competitive games he’s been in. I’m having flashbacks to other defenders Mike has found.

I made transfer bids for central defenders Yamith Cuesta and Fernando Amorebieta, the Cuesta bid was after Mike told me he’d failed. They accepted my minimum offer when I called, but there was no chance on reaching a contract agreement. MLS.

Chose same captains as last year, Goncalves as captain with Jermaine as vice. This will be the last time, as Jermaine’s contract expires at the end of the season.

2/27/17 at FC Montreal - friendly - we went with cobra and as many starters as possible in our final buildup game. And we finished our friendlies just like it was 2016 again only now we can put out 4 defenders to gift goals to the opposition. Matt Vide, who had looked good in the last couple games played to role of Jim Flores (now banished to the reserves) and gifted Montreal two quick goals after which Woodbury and Farrell decided there was no point in going on. We came back to tie the game at three and let Montreal have a late winner straight up the middle. Vide 5.8, Farrell, Woodbury and Burton 6.4, Shuttleworth 6.5

New England Revolution at FC Montreal

3-4

9 Shots 16

3 On Target 7

7 Fouls 10

2 Yellow Cards 0

55% Possession 45%

Goals: Salgado (16) Williams (28,41) Fagundez (pen 37) Meram (51) Rodríguez (75) Marcos (87)

And, since you can’t judge performance from friendlies, I can’t make any changes to our tactics until we get in some real games, even though we have been consistently outplayed by lesser teams in the preseason.

Gideon Baah agreed to join us on loan. I almost rejected him after Mike's last two signings at central defender (the much beloved Francis Dickoh and his partner in crime Onyekachi Apam) but he actually looks serviceable and after that last friendly there's the devils’ I know…..

At least now that we are back in the football swing there hasn’t been time for any personal drama lately, I’m enjoying the peace and quiet. We will open my third season in charge - the first one that I have a real say in - on the 4th against Philadelphia at Foxboro.

[neilhoskins77]

Should be an interesting season coming up Ed. Now the leash is off, we're about to find out if you've been keeping Mike in a job, or if it's the other way round. Best of luck.

[ChileanRanger]

"We officially signed Francis Dickoh from Midtjylland, he looks useful."

For the other teams, perhaps. XD

P.S: Love this story. Good job.

[edtheguy]

we're about to find out if you've been keeping Mike in a job, or if it's the other way round.

Um, that's exactly it. And frankly I have no idea which it is. I thought setting the game up this way would make for a fun challenge as well as an interesting story. I forgot that I am not good enough at FM without any added challenges to consider adding difficulty.... so Peter definitely has his work cut out for him here...

"We officially signed Francis Dickoh from Midtjylland, he looks useful."

For the other teams, perhaps. XD

Ok, I shouldn't have read that one at work....now I have to explain that I'm really okay....

And yeah, mistakes were made....

Thank you both - glad to have you following!

March 2017

Cuesta rejected our contract offer, which isn’t the end of the world as we are over budget if all of our transfer proposals go through.

Jim Curtin denied their season opener against us was a grudge match and said he’s not gonna let anything I say get to him. I don’t recall any issues between us, it must be hard work for the press to keep track of all of these ‘grudges.’

Defender Fernando Amorebieta agreed to terms for 388k/year, but we cannot afford both him and Baah, so I cancelled the deal. Sorry Fernando, you snooze, you lose.

The board sent their annual expectation reminder and expectations are back to mid table in the league and shield and not caring about the cup.

3/4/17 vs Philadelphia - MLS game 1 - Note: Since everything is now my fault I will start detailing tactics and lineups in my notes. 4213; Shuttleworth, Farrell, Goncalves, Burton, Baah, Jacobson, Duylio, Herivaux, Fagundez, Meram, Agudelo. Philadelphia 4231. I didn’t have any idea what to expect once the games started, but it’s a good thing I didn’t overreact and make changes after the last preseason game. We played very well. They played very poorly. It would be nice if it was this easy all season, but that’s not possible. Win 4-0.

New England Revolution (0-0-0) vs Philadelphia Union (0-0-0)

4-0

12 Shots 2

7 On Target 0

3 Fouls 9

0 Yellow Cards 0

54% Possession 46%

Goals: Agudelo (4,45) Fagundez (6) Farrell (27)

I can’t even express how much better Andrew Farrell looked at wingback, goal, assist, player of the match. Dark Cloud time - Juan twisted his knee late in the game and will miss 2-3 weeks.

Our season ticket sales actually finished up, one ticket, at 7505, we are on our way now - or maybe we’re just still worth heckling.

After our season opening win on Saturday we travel to Colorado for a midweek game against the Rapids, who lost on Sunday at Real Salt Lake. So they won’t have as much travel as us, but have less time between games.

Lee Nguyen passed his fitness test for 30 minutes and will make the bench for the Colorado game.

3/8/17 at Colorado - MLS game 2 - 4213; Shuttleworth, Farrell, Goncalves, Burton, Baah, Jacobson, Duylio, Herivaux, Fagundez, Meram, Hajdarovic. Colorado 4231 2DM. I was a little more confident going into this game, but we won’t really know if we have anything until we get a series of results. Our first two results couldn’t be more promising however, as this game went almost as well as the Philadelphia game. We were iron willed on defense and struck on the counter and with possession. Win 3-0.

New England Revolution (1-0-0) at Colorado Rapids(0-0-1)

3-0

16 Shots 6

7 On Target 1

7 Fouls 16

0 Yellow Cards 1

57% Possession 43%

Goals: Hajdarovic (35,69) Duylio (65)

We will have a much better test back at home on Saturday as we face 1-1-0 Toronto.

At dinner with Mike before we headed home I told him he can keep acquiring the players, since the whole roster is still his making, and he should leave the tactics to me. He almost choked on his veal, but he’s a good sport and loves the team, so as long as the team is doing well he’s gonna be happy. He also reminded me not to get complacent, it has only been two games.

The least recovered forward player on Saturday was Fagundez, so Nguyen, now fully fit again will start for him. The player most in need of a rest was Andrew Farrell, but after two clean sheets I can’t disturb the balance at the back, so he’ll start.

3/11/17 vs Toronto - MLS game 3 - 4213; Shuttleworth, Farrell, Goncalves, Burton, Baah, Jacobson, Duylio, Herivaux, Nguyen, Meram, Hajdarovic. Toronto 4123 DMW. Playing a tired Andrew Farrell was a mistake as he and Burton leaked three goals for a loss. Shuttleworth not stopping any of the first three shots on target didn’t help. Loss 2-3

New England Revolution (2-0-0) vs Toronto FC (1-1-0)

2-3

13 Shots 12

4 On Target 5

10 Fouls 14

1 Yellow Cards 1

49% Possession 51%

Goals: Hajdarovic (1) Altidore (4) Sam (9) Goncalves (30) Osorio (51)

And that one loss dropped us to 5th in the conference behind, among others Toronto and the 3-0 first place Chicago Fire, who we play next weekend. Hugo is gonna be obnoxious.

Kennedy Igboananike has 6 goals in 3 games for Chicago. Darren Mattocks was called up for international duty by Jamaica and will miss the game. Also, currently virtually everyone in MLS wants Woodbury and Johnson. I might be able to use that to my advantage when O’Neill shows up in July.

3/18/17 vs Chicago - MLS game 4 -4213 Shuttleworth, Farrell, Goncalves, Burton, Baah, Jacobson, Duylio, Herivaux, Nguyen, Fagundez, Hajdarovic. Chicago 4222 2DMW. I broke tradition and gave an opposition player instruction for the first time ever, telling my players to mark tightly, close down, tackle hard and show Kennedy to his weaker foot. The game went so well that I don’t know if any of it was necessary though. We are pretty good when we don’t gift goals to the opposition. Chicago couldn’t do anything all game and we eased to a 2-0 win after a scoreless first half.

New England Revolution (2-0-1) vs Chicago Fire (3-0-0)

2-0

17 Shots 4

5 On Target 0

15 Fouls 17

0 Yellow Cards 1

53% Possession 47%

Goals: Hajdarovic (57) Fagundez (75)

This is a very promising start to the season. And I have plenty of ideas of what to do if we start struggling for a change. After the game Hugo was unhappy and disappointed with his team's performance, but handled it with more class than he has before. The press didn’t share my opinion and asked me what I thought of him not letting our feud go. I told them I didn’t have time for questions like that.

I took a day off from training to attend David’s graduation with Gianna, since it wasn’t just me, I had to actually make the travel plans myself. Jayden flatly refused to have anything to do with Gianna, which is getting old. David’s commencement was a pompous and boring as they all are, but it was good to be there. He seems to be doing very well, he’s even staying at the school to help run their developing Esports program.

Next up we have a midweek game at conference leaders and perennial powerhouse Orlando City. Lee Nguyen won’t play midweek games in an effort to keep him on the field for as much of the season as possible.

Adrian Heath reiterated his view that I was holding the game back by not bringing in foreign players and the ‘many different styles’ that come with them. I wonder what he’ll say when I beat his ass with boring domestic players? I replied that I had no problem with a well spoken difference of opinion, but thanks for the pep talk, Adrian. Then the press asked how I planned to stop Arnaldo. Didn’t we just pour water on Kennedy? Did they see that game? Never mind.

3/22/17 at Orlando City - MLS game 5 - 4213 Shuttleworth, Farrell, Goncalves, Burton, Baah, Jacobson, Duylio, Herivaux, Fagundez, Rodriguez, Hajdarovic Orlando 4231. I remember last year when it didn’t look like we belonged on the same pitch as OCSC, it turns out we still don’t. It’s even more embarrassing now, when I actually had some hope for the game. The players completely let themselves down and I let Tom tell them about it which they seemed to take fairly well. We’ll see. Loss 1-4

New England Revolution (3-0-1) at Orlando City SC (3-1-0)

1-4

10 Shots 17

5 On Target 10

9 Fouls 5

2 Yellow Cards 1

52% Possession 48%

Goals: Rivas (32, 47) Winter (35) Burke (86) Hajdarovic (87)

Well good on Adrian then, he’s obviously right. Our homegrown players just peed themselves. Again. I’m still seeing enough of last years mistakes from these guys that I am concerned. Both losses were the all too familiar goal mistake 5.9’s from the entire defensive line. On the other hand, when they bother to play it’s been awesome. It’s like they’re all little girls with a curl. Next up back home on saturday for NYCFC.

3/27/17 vs NYCFC - MLS game 6 - 4213 Shuttleworth, Woodbury, Goncalves, Burton, Baah, Jacobson, Duylio, Herivaux, Sonora, Meram, Hajdarovic. NYCFC 4-2-3-1. At least we have now followed each of our stinkers with comprehensive victories, unlike the last couple years when one loss would lead to eight or nine more. We used some squad rotation for this game and even that went well. London Woodbury looked as happy to play wingback as Farrell did at the beginning of the year with an assist and an 8.8 rated player of the game performance. Solid win. 4-1.

New England Revolution (3-0-2) at NYCFC (2-2-1)

4-1

14 Shots 9

6 On Target 3

6 Fouls 7

0 Yellow Cards 1

50% Possession 50%

Goals: Meram (pen 18) Hajdarovic (30) Selton (31) Sonora (39) Duylio (70)

When we play well we aren’t dominating possession like the last couple years, just goals. I’ll take that. With no midweek game we will travel to Montreal to play the 8th place Impact next saturday and we should see the return from injury of Juan Agudelo. We currently sit 3rd and have already played 3 of the other 4 teams in the top 5 so far - but we have lost to 2 of them.

Jayden came into the office and closed the door after everyone left, which gave me flashbacks to the end of our summer fling a couple summers ago. This time though, was different.

She needed to tell me about a confrontation she had with Gianna. Apparently Gia had run into Helen who had spilled the beans about Jayden spending the night at the condo (I can only imagine how excited that must have made Helen). I saw my life flash before my eyes when Jayden told me that, but she said she handled it and told Gia that there was nothing for her to worry about, I had been a perfect gentleman and that she (Jayden) had been a complete mess. I asked Jayden if Gia knew we had an affair and Jayden said ‘no, she thinks we are going to.’ Essentially, Gia was giving Jayden a hands off warning, and wasn’t too polite about it.

When I asked Jayden how she managed to calm Gia down she said that she told Gia that I wouldn’t do that to her, I was too good of a man and that she- Jayden - had too much respect for me to mess with my life like that. I thanked her for not getting confrontational and spilling the beans about our past. She said ‘I could never do that to you.’ which was - well, a little too touching. I don’t deserve that much kindness. I’m not that good of a person - I’m just a guy, making things up as I go.

Now I’ve got a moral dilemma though. If I’m serious about Gianna she deserves to know the truth, but if I tell Gianna about what Jayden and I did two years ago there's no way Jayden and I can continue to work together, and Jayden needs her job. And frankly she deserve the job too, she is darn good at what she does. This is a fine mess you've gotten yourself into Peter....

And there’s this football team to run too, with a game in Montreal in three days….

[edtheguy]

April 2017

I dealt with my personal issues like I usually do, by ignoring them and focusing on something else. At the dreaded monthly board meeting I was listed as secure, with criticism of our loss to Toronto and praise for the Baah acquisition, which I gave credit to Mike for. We had a strange dinner with the Burns afterwards, Gia is clearly waiting for me to talk to her about Jayden, but right now I’ve got to focus on trying to keep the team’s momentum going on the road in Montreal.

4/3/17 at Montreal - MLS game 7 - 4213 Shuttleworth, Farrell, Goncalves, Burton, Baah, Jacobson, Jones, Duylio, Hajdarovic, Fagundez, Agudelo. Montreal 4-2-3-1. And it didn’t take Juan long to announce his presence as he scored an early goal and Duylio scored from his more advanced central midfield position and we won far more comfortably than the final 2-1 score indicated.

New England Revolution (4-0-2) at Montreal Impact (2-2-2)

2-1

12 Shots 6

6 On Target 1

8 Fouls 7

4 Yellow Cards 3

56% Possession 44%

Goals: Agudelo (5) Duylio (35) McNamara (82)

Juan scored inside 5 minutes and injured himself inside 60, he will be out 9-12 days which will cost him this weekends double header against NYCFC on Thursday and Columbus on Saturday as well as DCU on the next weekend.

We were back home for a fairly uneventful week of practice before the NYCFC game on Saturday.

4/8/17 vs NYCFC - MLS game 8 - 4213 Shuttleworth, Woodbury, Goncalves, Barnes, Baah, Jacobson, Jones, Flores, Nguyen, Rodriguez, Hajdarovic. NYCFC 4-2-3-1. With two games in three days squad rotation was inevitable, it was just a question of how to mix and match. Apparently I chose poorly as, while we were in complete control and never in danger of losing, we lacked the quality to finish. Or maybe it was because the press asked about our frequency of scoring after the last game. Draw 0-0.

New England Revolution (5-0-2) vs NYCFC (2-1-4)

0-0

12 Shots 9

4 On Target 2

9 Fouls 10

1 Yellow Cards 2

55% Possession 45%

Goals: --

I finally dealt with Gia after the NYCFC game, sort of, and it went pretty well. I apologized for not telling her that I rescued my comatose PA from the bar, and she said she was glad that she was with a man that could be counted on when someone needed help, but that I needed to take her feelings into consideration. I promised I would and asked if she was ok with Jayden. She said she still thought Jayden had a thing for me, but that she looked her in the eye and felt she could trust her... but mostly she was ok because she trusted me.

Yeah, about that… I’m still ignoring the issue of my past with Jayden. I hope that doesn’t come back to bite me.

Of course the pregame questions for the Columbus game centered on our five games without a win against them. I Said I was still trying to achieve the level of coaching greatness that Greg had, and he soaked it up and said once more that he knows how to beat me.

4/10/17 at Columbus - MLS game 9 - 4213 Shuttleworth, Farrell, Goncalves, Burton, Baah, Herivaux, Jacobson, Duylio, Sonora, Fagundez, Hajdarovic. Columbus 4-2-3-1. Apparently Greg does know how to beat me. This was the team that didn’t look like they belonged. At no point in the game did we look like we had a clue. I actually think we should win each time we play them, but obviously the players don’t. Wasn’t as close as the score. Loss 1-3

New England Revolution (5-1-2) at Columbus Crew (2-3-1)

1-3

6 Shots 15

3 On Target 7

12 Fouls 9

2 Yellow Cards 1

46% Possession 54%

Goals: Finley (3) Mabwati (35) Sonora (39) McInerney (88)

Irritated doesn’t begin to describe it. This is why I need to let Tom take the talks. Nothing I have to say would help any of the players confidence right now.

I mostly sulked and deleted a lot of emails for the week leading up to the game against DCU and their new manager Preki, who is off to a rough start - winless in 8. It was a good week for the Mexican leagues to end. Gianna refused to have anything to do with me and told me to call her when I was in a better mood.

4/15/17 vs DC United - MLS game 10 - 4213 Shuttleworth, Farrell Goncalves, Burton, Baah, Jacobson, Jones, Duylio, Hajdarovic, Fagundez, Agudelo. DC United 4-1-2-3 DMW. We were terrible. No interest in taking part in the game. Games like this drive me crazy. We changed to Sword after the half down 1-0 and tied the game as Nguyen in for Agudelo, who was pulled for having an attitude as poor as his performance, had a nice assist. Then Farrell gifted DC a penalty in the 79th minute. Loss 2-1; Congratulations on your first win Preki.

New England Revolution (5-1-3) vs DC United (0-5-3)

1-2

8 Shots 16

4 On Target 5

17 Fouls 14

2 Yellow Cards 1

46% Possession 54%

Goals: Espinoza (10) Herivaux (59) Pontius (pen 79)

Next up a midweek game at Real Salt Lake, going to be consistent and stick with the tactic and players that had been bringing us joy. And pray.

I confirmed our participation in an allocation for goalie Ben Cherniski who is somewhere between a future prospect and as good as Shuttleworth already.

Hajdarovic injured himself in training and will be out 3-4 weeks.

4/19/17 at Real Salt Lake - MLS game 11 - Cobra 4213 Shuttleworth, Farrell Goncalves, Burton, Baah, Jacobson, Jones, Duylio, Nguyen, Fagundez, Agudelo. And we’re back, this is the team that can lose 10 in a row. We fell behind early struggled to play them even the whole game and Andrew Farrell, who now leads the team in goal mistakes, got himself sent off for two yellows. Loss 0-1

New England Revolution (5-1-4) vs Real Salt Lake (3-4-3)

0-1

10 Shots 7

2 On Target 2

18 Fouls 5

2 Yellow Cards 1

47% Possession 53%

Goals: Martins (7)

Our next loss will be to DC United on saturday. Justin Meram will come into the side. Burton will also sit out and, of course, Farrell who got himself suspended in the last game.

4/22/17 vs DC United - MLS game 12 - 4213 Shuttleworth, Woodbury, Goncalves, Barnes, Baah, Jacobson, Jones, Duylio, Meram, Rodriguez, Agudelo. DC United 4-1-2-3 DMW. We didn’t lose, but we should have. Tried changing tactics, tried more direct passing. None made any difference at all because none of it matters when the players are in a funk and WON'T DO ANYTHING.. Draw 2-2.

New England Revolution (5-1-5) vs DC United (2-5-3)

2-2

15 Shots 8

6 On Target 4

15 Fouls 21

1 Yellow Cards 0

52% Possession 48%

Goals: Meram (24) Pontius (40) Espindola (59) Agudelo (75)

Next up LA in 8 days. And the rats are all asking to jump ship now, I told Jim Flores and Darren Mattocks we would try to sell them when they came to me asking to leave.

At least LA in April is nicer than New England in April. If only we didn't have to play the game on Sunday....

4/30/17 at LA Galaxy - MLS game13 - Cobra 4213 Shuttleworth, Woodbury, Goncalves, Taylor, Baah, Jacobson, Duylio, Nguyen, Fagundez, Meram, Agudelo. We scored inside 10 minutes to go up 1-0, but that was when our game ended. Unfortunately the Galaxy remembered to play the other 80 minutes. And we lost, not much more to say. 1-2

New England Revolution (5-2-5) at LA Galaxy (4-4-3)

1-2

12 Shots 18

4 On Target 4

10 Fouls 13

0 Yellow Cards 0

53% Possession 47%

Goals: Fagundez (10) Alves (56) Jamieson (73)

It’s not the tactics. It’s probably the coach. I sent Tom to the presser.

Back in the office the next day I couldn’t help but review our record at the end of April for the last three years and it was as bad as I feared...

2015 4-3-2

2016 5-4-3

2017 5-2-6

Just as I thought, we are getting worse every year! So much for being in control making any difference.

Gia unloaded on me after I got back from LA. After she listened to me whine for half the night she told me to shut up. She pointed out that all I had been saying was that it was the tactic’s fault, Mike's fault, the players fault.... She said I was supposed to lead them, not blame them and the thing that makes managers, football or otherwise, special was the ability to solve problems. She went on to say I was one of the best problem solvers she had ever known, and she knew I could handle it if I would just stop wallowing in my own misery and get on with it. She also mentioned that she was not going to Kate and Andrew’s wedding next month with a crybaby.

I was stunned, I couldn’t think of anything to say before she walked out the door.

[ChileanRanger]

First off, looks like Farrell has taken Dickoh's place as mercenary.

Second. (O.O) Gia is right, he is being a crybaby. A big one.

Third. Yes, this whole Gia-Jayden thing will come back to bite him.

Fourth and last. Enjoyed this chapter, as usual. Well done. Again.

[edtheguy]

First off, looks like Farrell has taken Dickoh's place as mercenary.

Second. (O.O) Gia is right, he is being a crybaby. A big one.

Third. Yes, this whole Gia-Jayden thing will come back to bite him.

Fourth and last. Enjoyed this chapter, as usual. Well done. Again.

Thank you sir!

And as to those observations-

1. All I will say about Andrew Farrell is that it is probably worth following his career as we go on.

2. She is definitely right, and I think everyone else can see it, but Peter is the only one who can do anything about it. (And I wish he would -I'm getting tired of writing it!)

3. How could it not, right? I think even Peter knows that, but it seems to be easier to hide his head in the sand though. For now at least...

[EvilDave]

I'm enjoying the way you've made this transition Ed, throwing Peter out there on his own and watching him deal with the consequences. Part of me wants to see the Revs turn things around, but on the other hand you write the struggle very well!

[edtheguy]

EvilDave

I'm enjoying the way you've made this transition Ed, throwing Peter out there on his own and watching him deal with the consequences. Part of me wants to see the Revs turn things around, but on the other hand you write the struggle very well!

Thank you very much, it has been fun for me to write so far. Well mostly, there are definitely times when I wonder what I've gotten myself into with this Peter fellow...

May 2017

I was still out of sorts and fairly disoriented when we faced the Dynamo three days later.

5/4/17 vs Houston - MLS game 14 - 4213 Shuttleworth, Farrell, Woodbury, Goncalves, Baah, Duylio Jones, Jacobson, Nguyen, Fagundez, Agudelo. We finally played our game again and eased to a 2-0 oops, nope we choked away a goal at the end. Win 2-1

New England Revolution (5-2-6) vs Houston Dynamo (5-5-2)

2-1

19 Shots 8

9 On Target 3

5 Fouls 4

0 Yellow Cards 0

59% Possession 41%

Goals: Fagundez (13) Nguyen (18) Birnbaum (78)

That was very exciting. Now lets see if we can follow our one game winning streak with another six game winless one. Tom picked the lineup, Tom can do the presser.

Next, after one day's rest we get 3rd overall Sporting KC.

5/6/17 at Sporting Kansas City - MLS game 15 - 4213 Shuttleworth, Farrell, Woodbury, Barnes, Baah, Jacobson, Jones, Duylio, Nguyen, Fagundez, Agudelo. Sporting KC 4123 DMW. And we started our next losing streak in style melting down to a 0-3 halftime score before playing a good, but meaningless, second half. At least Goncalves scored a nice own goal. Loss 2-3.

New England Revolution (6-2-6) vs Sporting Kansas City (7-1-4)

2-3

8 Shots 14

5 On Target 6

8 Fouls 14

1 Yellow Cards 2

48% Possession 52%

Goals: Valencia (24) Nemeth (39) Goncalves og (43) Farrell (49) Agudelo (61)

Just get me to the offseason already. I’ve told Tom he’s doing all press conferences and team talks. I gave the staff some tweaks to our two alternate tactics as they haven’t done anything when we’ve needed a change and told them to get the squad up to speed.

Baah was injured in practice and will miss a few days, but at least Hajdarovic and Goncalves are back.

As I was fuming at the office after one of our practice sessions Jayden told me she agreed with Gia, that I wasn’t helping anyone with my attitude and I needed to make things right. Mike even chimed in later and told me this was when I earned that big paycheck I was getting - when times are tough. None of this input is helping me.

5/13/17 vs Portland - MLS game 16 - 4213 Ford Farrell Woodbury Burton Goncalves Duylio Jacobson Nguyen Fagundez Rodriguez Agudelo Portland 4231 Portland had a player sent off at 19 minutes and still outplayed us the entire game. Draw 2-2

New England Revolution (6-2-7) vs Portland Timbers (6-3-4)

2-2

14 Shots 11

5 On Target 4

10 Fouls 9

1 Yellow Cards 2

54% Possession 46%

Goals: Agudelo (31) Jonathan (48) Martinez (70) Duylio (88)

After only 15 games I am already running out of things to try, so for a 2nd tactic we’ve pirated a 4123 from my Northern Irish cousin Conall Madden, who is managing Margate in England and has gotten them promoted to the Vanarama National Conference. Conall also told me that a big part of any success he’s had is keeping morale as high as possible, and he recommended I focus on positive reinforcement for the team. I told him I wasn’t very good at motivation, that’s why I had Tom, but I’d take it under advisement. For our third tactic we revamped our old 3-5-2 to be a 5-2-1-2 WB. Something has to work, this is getting ridiculous.

5/17/17 at San Jose - MLS game 17 - new 532 Shuttleworth, Barnes, Woodbury, Jones, Farrell, Goncalves, Duylio, Nguyen, Fagundez, Agudelo, Hajdarovic San Jose 4-4-2. i have no words. OK, just one - Abysmal. Changed to Conall’s 4123 at 60 mins and saw no difference, yuck.

New England Revolution (6-3-7) at San Jose Earthquake (3-4-3)

0-1

7 Shots 7

3 On Target 2

12 Fouls 11

3 Yellow Cards 2

58% Possession 42%

Goals: Godoy (11)

Next up Columbus, who we can't beat anyway. After such a promising start we have now won one of our last ten games. I took this pre match press conference to face the ‘me vs Greg’ barrage, it wouldn’t be fair to stick Tom with that while I hid in the office.

5/20/17 at Columbus - MLS Game 18 - 4123 Shuttleworth, Woodbury, Goncalves, Burton, Baah, Jones, Herivaux, Rodriguez, Agudelo, Meram, Hajdarovic Columbus 4231 Yup, this slump definitely has nothing to do with tactics, the 4123 - which has won promotion with lesser players - and our old 3-5-2 both performed worse than our regular tactic. We will go back to our 4213 and ride out the season. Let's see if these players can get me fired. Oh, yea, we lost 1-4.

New England Revolution (6-3-8) at Columbus Crew (8-3-4)

1-4

7 Shots 17

4 On Target 10

13 Fouls 11

1 Yellow Cards 0

49% Possession 51%

Goals: Higuain (17) Mabwati (32) Finlay (67,82) Rodriguez (75)

This can’t get any worse, can it? Later in the week I actually caught myself considering leaving the stadium in the middle of the day to get some drinks at Waxy’s when it hit me, if this wasn’t rock bottom then I didn’t want to see it - this is not the person I want to be.

Alright then it’s time for that attitude change, the girls are right. It’s not me vs Mike or me vs the players, or the board. We are all in this together and it's my job to see the big picture and figure things out. I don’t like this churlish, whiny, complaining person I’ve become any more than anyone else does. When I asked Jayden for suggestions on improving my attitude she had Gia in the office within the hour and they went to work. Together. I’m not entirely comfortable with them working together, but here we are.

I apologized to them for taking so long to come around and they looked at me like a two year old who just admitted he ate the cookies, but they said they forgave me. Which made me both relieved and uncomfortable.

The next day I held a coaches meeting and we looked for ideas together on how to dig our way out of this hole. We wound up with new 2nd and third tactics again, a 4231 and a 433, and this time we planned to stick with them to give the players a chance to find a rhythm.

5/27/17 at Seattle - MLS Game 19 - 4213 Shuttleworth Farrell Woodbury Goncalves Baah Duylio Jones Jacobson Nguyen Fagundez Agudelo Seattle 3-5-2. We were in complete control, got a 1-0 lead in the first half, saw Seattle go to 10 men on a red card, and then we gave up the lead. The new 4231 saved the day though and we wound up winning 3-1. It wasn't easy, I would rather see us in more control of a game against a team of ten men, but it was a win and I need to focus on that.

New England Revolution (6-3-9) at Seattle Sounders FC (3-4-10)

3-1

15 Shots 11

7 On Target 4

11 Fouls 12

3 Yellow Cards 4

55% Possession 45%

Goals: Agudelo (21,73,82) Valdes (58)

So we might now have a working second tactic. Also, where has Juan been all this time? The disappointing thing is the 4-3-3 counter that we had high hopes for surrendered the goal to the 10 men. We are making it a 4-1-4-1 now as there aren’t enough men behind the ball with a 4-3-3 to try to counter attack anyone. We are only changing the formation though, and nothing else, so hopefully it won't slow the player's learning curve with it too much.

I confirmed our participation in the allocation for CD Kyle Miller, who scouted very well.

Andrew and Kate’s wedding was a wonderful overseas affair, which turned out well mostly because while I largely financed the affair I had nothing to do with the planning. The ceremony took place in a beautiful country villa outside Rome and there were activities covering a full week for those with the time. Gia and I only made it there for the day before and the day of the wedding because of my schedule, but it was still a stunning whirlwind of an experience.

After Kate and her new husband honeymoon across europe they will be moving into their new home in Wlikes-Barre PA, where they are opening a large full performing arts conservatory, to be called the Susquehanna School of the Arts. In addition to being on the board Kate will also head the school's dance program which they are naming the Kate B. Kote School of Dance (the B is for Banalik). At least it seems both of my children are enjoying success in fields they enjoy.

Now I need to get my head out of my arse and start enjoying my career, Gia assures me that it will be easier than I think once I put my mind to it.

I hope she’s right.

[edtheguy]

June 2017

We had our traditional post board meeting dinner with Mike and Michelle and while we did talk a little about the board's deliberations - they feel I’m doing a fine job but are worried about Alidin’s recent performances (rightfully so) - most of the evening was spent on social banter. This could have been relaxing except Gia has started referring to things that she and Jayden have talked about with alarming frequency. Every time I hear her mention Jayden I can hear the ticking of a time bomb in the back of my head.

The day before leaving for Philadelphia I found out we actually won the allocation for Miller, so I traded the unhappy Darren Mattocks to Seattle for nothing to free up roster space, now when O’Neill gets here we’ll have a ton of defenders

6/3/17 at Philadelphia - MLS game 20 - 4213 Shuttleworth Farrell Burton Goncalves Baah Duylio Miller Nguyen Hajdarovic Fagundez Agudelo vs Philadelphia 4231. We came in waves and the first 15 minutes of the game was an onslaught. Of missed chances. We did finally score and went on for a comfortable 2-0 win. Both Hajdarovic and Burton, who I encouraged before the game played very well.

New England Revolution (7-3-9) at Philadelphia Union (3-3-13)

2-0

18 Shots 7

8 On Target 2

4 Fouls 8

3 Yellow Cards 4

55% Possession 45%

Goals: Nguyen (16) Agudelo (73)

Kyle Miller came straight from the allocation into our lineup and had an assist and a 7.2 rating.

Even though things have gone reasonably well the last few games we still held more late night meetings to make sure we had everything right with the tactics after revieing the film. We now have a 4213, structured, control mentality, pressing, shorter passing, playmaker deep and wide. A 4231, very fluid, control mentality, direct passing, creative playmaker deep and in the hole. And a 4141 very fluid, counter mentality, stand off, disciplined, medium passing, central playmaker.

Next up Chicago and Philly again, who the 4213 worked well against before, so we will start with that there. Then back to back games against top of the league Toronto, we will start with the 4141 there.

I sat down with Mike to review and last year we were 7-4-9 after 20 games and this year we are only slightly better at 8-3-9, but last year we were being soundly outscored with a -10 goal differential, this year we have a +4 goal differential. Better times are coming. We are 2nd in goals scored and 17th in goals allowed. This is the second year in a row that defense has been a problem, and it really shouldn’t be with the 4213. After going over the numbers I changed my mind, we will start with the 4213 in all but extreme cases, and change if it isn’t working - the 4231 if we are facing a press, and 4141 otherwise.

Nguyen and Agudelo will be on international duty for our next four games, and Meram has not returned from his international duty yet.

6/10/17 at Chicago - MLS match 21 - 4213 Shuttleworth Farrell Woodbury Goncalves Baah Miller Jacobson Duylio Sonora Fagundez Hajdarovic Chicago - 4-2-2-2 2DM. The game started as a boring grinding stalemate, and Tom suggested we go more direct so at the half we switched to the 4231 and pulled an under performing Duylio. The change made things better, but it wans’t until we also subbed out Sonora and Miller and got a couple key saves from Shuttleworth that we made it pay. But we did. Win 2-0

New England Revolution (8-3-9) at Chicago Fire (8-6-3)

2-0

12 Shots 10

4 On Target 2

8 Fouls 7

3 Yellow Cards 4

47% Possession 53%

Goals: Rodriguez (71) Burton (90)

Nathan Burton’s goal was his first ever professional marker.

Hugo Sanchez said that I lacked class. It’s good to win, you get to watch the other manager melt down. My pre match comment that apparently offended him was when, in reply to a question asking what I thought of Hugo’s comments about me, I said ‘compliments are alway nice, but I’d rather have a win at the final whistle’. And he’s making a stink about that. Yup, I’m the one without class.

The Chicago game makes it twice now that the 4231 has worked when the 4213 didn’t. Next we need to see if the 4141 does it’s job when called on.

6/14/17 vs Philadelphia - US Cup fourth round - 4213 Ford, Woodbury, Burton, Goncalves, Baah, Jacobson, Herivaux, Duylio, Fagundez, Rodriguez, Hajdarovic vs Philadelphia:4231. Once again we were held to a stalemate and Tom suggested more direct play. This time we stayed with the 4213 and just changed the team instructions and it helped. Hajdarovic came off for injury and eventually we had to take off Rodriguez and Herivaux for poor play and Meram and Sonora scored off the bench for the win. 2-1.

New England Revolution vs Philadelphia Union - US Cup

2-1

12 Shots 9

4 On Target 2

9 Fouls 7

0 Yellow Cards 0

48% Possession 52%

Goals: Meram (45+2) Cruz (62) Sonora (79)

The last couple games have been a struggle, but that makes four wins in a row in all comps. For an overdue dark cloud, Dr. Allen informed us that Hajdarovic will be injured for 2-3 weeks.

Our reward for our cup victory? A fifth round match against Greg Berhalter and his Columbus Crew.

We held another weekly staff meeting and based on Ian’s tactical advice we are going with the 4141 for the next game vs Toronto.

6/17/17 vs Toronto FC - MLS game 22 - 4-1-4-1 Shuttleworth Farrell Burton Goncalves Baah Miller Sonora Jacobson Duylio Rodriguez Fagundez vs Toronto 4123 DM wide. The tactical change was probably a blunder, but it’s hard to tell. Former Rev Scott Caldwell scored off of two corners in the first half. We changed to the 4231 at 60 minutes and removed the 3 most pitiful players and clawed one back. Not good enough. Loss 1-2

New England Revolution (9-3-9) vs Toronto FC (11-5-2)

1-2

12 Shots 9

3 On Target 5

10 Fouls 12

3 Yellow Cards 4

45% Possession 55%

Goals: Caldwell (7,18) Meram (70)

We agreed to terms with 23 year old German Goalkeeper Philipp Klewin, who physically is comparable to Shuttleworth already with potential to improve. We will see how he performs in actual games, but I am hopeful. He will join when the window opens on the 5th along with defender O’Neill. I was hoping to be in a better position when we got reinforcements but we will have to make the most of it.

Despite the loss the 4141 actually showed some promise, when we discussed it as a coaching staff we decided we needed to simplify it by removing some instructions and build up it’s familiarity.

We don’t play again until the 28th when we get to make another trip to Columbus. I’m actually considering the 4141 vs the Crew.

Andrew Farrell was called up for international duty from 7/4-7/23. He will be gone for at least 3 games. It’s good for Andrew though, he has come a long ways from those first couple years when he was forced to play central defender, over our good run this past month he has been consistantly one of our best players.

Mike and I got together with the finance people to run some numbers durig the week and we decided to waive Peter Johnson, Dennis Flores and our third string keeper Regis Diba before the contract guarantee date to free up some cap room.

6/28/17 at Columbus - US Cup - 4141 Shuttleworth, Woodbury, Burton, Goncalves, Baah, Miller, Fagundez, Jacobson, Duylio, Rodriguez, Agudelo vs Columbus 4231. We had two early chances and were robbed by the Columbus keeper, hit two posts later in the match and generally played very well. But it’s Columbus.... Loss 0-1.

New England Revolution at Columbus Crew - US Cup

0-1

14 Shots 12

6 On Target 5

14 Fouls 7

1 Yellow Cards 1

41% Possession 59%

Goals: Mabwati (79)

Next up a quick turnaround against Toronto FC. Tactically we will go back to the 4213 for this game, it has looked good the last two times we played Toronto.

Dr. Allen informed me that after evaluating a struggling Lee Nguyen he recommended a week long vacation so Lee could recover from the strain of the busy schedule. I talked it over with Tom and sent Lee on vacation for a week.

I can only be amazed at how much things have changed in one month. I am in a better frame of mind, everyone around me is happier and the team is winning. Of course it’s easy for everyone to be in a good mood when we win. My real test will come the next time we have a slump. I have been putting in so many extra hours with Mike, Tom, and the staff to try to stay on top of things that we haven’t been able to do much outside of work, which is kind of funny because now Gia is much more willing to do things with me than she was last month, understandably.

When we finally did get a night out near the end of the month Gia made plans and we went to Boston for dinner with Rick and Jayden who are back together, for the time being at least….. let us count the ways that was awkward….I would describe the experience but I really don’t remember much, I was in a daze most of the evening. Gia is still an amazing, and beautiful woman, but it is a good thing she has a wonderful personality, because otherwise she would be invisible around Jayden who is simply stunning when she puts her mind to it. And Rick is still a tool.

At least I survived the evening unscathed. I hope this doesn’t become a regular thing.

[ChileanRanger]

"Let us count the ways that was awkward…"

GLADLY!

1: Peter's brief affair with Jayden

2: Having to rescue her from being an emotional trainwreck.

3: The guy that caused her to become the emotional trainwreck is sitting right next to Peter.

4: Gia and Jayden, who don't get along, are in the same table as well. (Do You Hear the Time Bomb Tick?(This part should be read with Do You Hear the People Sing from the Les Mis musical in the background.))

5: Current girlfriend meeting with ex.

6: Not only do Gia and Jayden don't get along, but they have been trying to talk Peter out of being a crybaby. Which is awkward because it's the current girlfriend and ex talking about him.

7: Meeting ex's current partner.

8: Current partner is also the cause to their brief affair because she wanted to get back at him.

9: (From what I got from previous updates) Peter is a little jealous because of Rick's 'supermodel' appearance.

10: Possibility of it becoming a regular thing.

Phew, we hit double digits. And those are the only ones I recall right now.

[edtheguy]

"Let us count the ways that was awkward…"

GLADLY!

Ha! Yes - that about covers it....

July 2017

I told Mike on our way to the game in Toronto after the videoconference board meeting that I couldn’t believe how easy this board is to please. They are still happy with my performance and told me I was secure. They like Baah, don’t like losing to Toronto - to which I told Mike “Oh, yea? Can we discuss Columbus?”

7/1/17 at Toronto FC - MLS game 23 - 4213 Shuttleworth Woodbury Burton Goncalves Baah Miller Jacobson Duylio Agudelo Rodriguez Meram Toronto 4123 DMW. And we finally have a very satisfying win. It was clear inside 10 minutes that the 4231 was not going to work so we chaged to the 4213, only leaving Duylio in CM slot as it was too early to sub. The change was masterful as we took immediate and total control of the game, although it took several chances before we capitalized. And of course Toronto scratched out one chance to tie the game. But this time we came back for the lead and trailing late in the game Toronto went all out attack and we countered with the 4141. The tactical changes were masterstrokes and we won. 2-1.

New England Revolution (9-3-10) at Toronto FC (12-5-3)

2-1

17 Shots 10

9 On Target 4

11 Fouls 12

1 Yellow Cards 2

44% Possession 56%

Goals:Meram (pen 28) Osorio (35) Rodriguez (59)

In the news the next day was a report that NYCFC has set a new record by going nineteen games without a win. Their record on the year is 2-5-15. Ouch. I guess I feel a little better now.

On tuesday Jim Flores missed practice and then he complained when he was fined. I told him to get out of my stadium and waived him.

We completed the signing of Philipp Klewin and Shane O’Neill. They will both go straight into the lineup Saturday against the Red Bull. Normally I would work them in off the bench for at least one game before starting them, but time is short.

7/8/17 at New York Red Bull - MLS game 24 - 4213 Klewin Woodbury Burton O’Neill Goncalves Miller Jacobson Duylio Fagundez Rodriguez Agudelo New York 4231 In what was an entertaining back and forth game no one could come out on top and once again one of my nemesis’ gets the last laugh. We had to again change to the more direct 4231 after falling behind 1-0, Klewin saved a penalty and we went ahead 2-1. As I was pondering changing to the 4141 Kelyn Rowe scored a 25+ yard goal against us. Again. Draw 2-2.

New England Revolution (10-3-10) at New York Red Bull (8-5-8)

2-2

11 Shots 15

6 On Target 6

4 Fouls 12

1 Yellow Cards 1

42% Possession 58%

Goals:Wright-Phillips (31) Fagundez (34) Meram (68) Rowe (79)

Honestly, I think I’ll stick with this unintentional bait and switch that we have been doing for a while. Teams seem to set up to stop our possession game and when we change to our direct tactic it works.

7/15/17 vs Montreal Impact - MLS game 25 - 4213 Klewin Woodbury Goncalves O’Neill Baah Jacobson Duylio Fagundez Hajdarovic Meram Agudelo Montreal 4231 And now I’m starting to think it’s all about pulling the right strings at the right time. We once again went through all three tactics and escaped with a narrow victory. This time when the 4231 grabbed a late lead on a counter attack I immediately changed to the 4141 and we actually had more chances in the final minutes than Montreal. Win 2-1

New England Revolution (10-4-10) at Montreal Impact (8-8-6)

2-1

11 Shots 13

5 On Target 3

9 Fouls 4

1 Yellow Cards 2

44% Possession 56%

Goals: Agudelo (1) Reo-Coker (51) Fagundez (76)

We are now 11-4-10 for 37pts compared to last year after 25 games when we were 9-5-11 for 32pts. If we could have skipped that 1-3-7 stretch that had me thinking really bad thoughts, our record would be 10-1-3. That would have been nice.

Andrew Farrell was selected for the MLS all star squad managed by DC United’s new skipper Preki to play against Arsenal. Speaking of new head coaches, our next game is against NYCFC and their new boss, in charge for his first game, Jurgen Klinsmann.

7/22/17 at NYCFC - MLS game 26 - 4213 Klewin Woodbury Goncalves O’Neill Baah Jacobson Duylio Fagundez Nguyen Rodriguez Agudelo NYCFC 4231 We once again found reason to use all three tactics, and in the end the game wasn’t as easy as the stats make it look. But it wasn’t all that trying either. Win 3-1.

New England Revolution (11-4-10) at NYCFC (2-5-17)

3-1

17 Shots 13

10 On Target 5

5 Fouls 13

0 Yellow Cards 0

50% Possession 50%

Goals:Agudelo (4) Diskerud (48) Fagundez (62) O’Neill (90+1)

Juan Agudelo was injured late in the game and Dr. Allen informed me he would be out 2 weeks. Next up, my buddy Greg and his 11-6-6 Columbus Crew.

The plan for the Crew game will be to alternate between the 4231 and 4141, as greg likes to play defensive football we will ditch our possession based Cobra all together for this match.

Preki’s boys beat Arsenal 2-1. He can do no wrong at the moment. after an 0-5-3 start to his first year in DC, they have gone 12-3-1 (starting with a win against us), and now this. He plays a 4-3-1-2 narrow, balanced and direct style. Taking notes.

I made a trade offer to the LA Galaxy for 19 year old American forward Haji Wright, they negotiated it to a 3rd round pick. On the same day as that we were denied participation in an allocation as winning would have ‘violated MLS roster rules without possibility of repair’ OK then...

7/29/17 vs Columbus - MLS game 27 - 4231 Klewin Woodbury Burton O’Neil Goncalves Jacobson Duylio Nguyen Fagundez Rodriguez Hajdarovic Columbus 4231 Sometimes there are no words, there seems to be some predetermined higher power that does not want us to beat Columbus. We had a 2-0 lead inside 15 minutes, and Cedrick Mabwati turned into superman again and scored a 10 minute brace to tie the game and when Jose Goncalves decided he needed an early shower for two yellows, our replacement left back, the normal starter Baah, couldn't remember how to clear the ball and his mistake gave Columbus a chance to score what the announcers called a ‘fluke’ goal to win. You couldn’t make this stuff up.

New England Revolution (12-4-10) vs Columbus Crew (11-6-6)

2-3

12 Shots 12

3 On Target 5

7 Fouls 11

0 Yellow Cards 0

46% Possession 54%

Goals:Rodriguez (9) Fagundez (13) Mabwati (25,35) Watson (80)

Next up DC United and then a ridiculous month long break as everyone else catches up on the work we have already put in.

After the Columbus game I thought I saw Gia embracing another man in the crowd outside Patriot Place, but I lost them in the crowd before I could be sure, he looked familiar but I couldn’t place him at the time. Later I realized it looked like Rick Hamilton. It’s hard to be in a positive mood about that.

[ChileanRanger]

(._.) That last part... Either Gia is pulling a Helen on Peter or he just thought he saw that.(Which I highly doubt.)

Also, looks like Rowe can't get enough of ruining Peter's day with an outside of the box shot. Your best bet is getting Rowe so that he stops stealing points from you.

Good job, as usual.

[edtheguy]

Thank you CR, after the way Kelyn Rowe left town I don't think he and Peter will be re-uniting any time soon. As for what Peter thinks he's seen - read on....

August 2017

Fiorentina made a bid for Fagundez that had incentives to bring it to just below his free release clause, but apparently matched what we had set Diego’s asking price to last year in order to deter offers so Mike accepted it. I changed Diego’s asking price to unspecified and rejected the offer.

We had our traditional post board meeting dinner with the Burns at Saga Hibachi in Foxboro. The board meeting was uneventful and everyone had a good time at dinner. Well everyone but me, instead of a good time I just had more sake. I still have this pit in my stomach about what I think I saw, and I can’t bring myself to ask Gia about it. Even if I knew how to approach it I can’t see any way I won’t feel like a fool for bringing it up, whether I’m right or wrong about what I saw.

Klewin injured himself in training, and will be out 2 months. Good thing we have a month off after the DC game.

8/5/17 at DC United - MLS game 28 - 4213 Shuttleworth Farrell Burton O’Neill Baah Jacobson Duylio Fagundez Nguyen Rodriguez Agudelo We actually changed to the 4231 in prematch, to try to skip DC’s three man midfield, and it worked tactically well enough to go toe to toe with the hottest team in the league, but a couple of meltdowns leaked goals, Burton and Baah were the culprits. Draw 3-3.

New England Revolution (12-4-11) at DC United (13-8-4)

3-3

9 Shots 21

5 On Target 8

9 Fouls 11

0 Yellow Cards 1

44% Possession 56%

Goals:Agudelo (10) Texeira (13) Rodriguez (45+1,67) Martin (55,62)

It’s still pretty encouraging, we are definitely better than we were the beginning of the season.

On the 21st it finally happened. Diego Fagundez signed with Metalist for a 7m transfer fee that met his free release with incentives.

While there is no good news here it is worth noting that this sale smashes the previous record sale for the Revs - which was Clint Dempsey’s transfer to Fulham.

It wasn’t until Gia asked me later that I realized I missed a chance to bid Diego farewell, which made my sour mood even worse. Between my still nagging self doubts about my managerial skills, my fears about our relationship, and regrets about Diego leaving, I couldn’t have been in a much worse mood.

After Gia went home I went to drown my sorrows at Waxy’s, had far too much to drink, and made a very bad decision.

[edtheguy]

August/September 2017

Jayden, who Gia had actually recruited for help with me now that they are getting along, found me in the office the next morning with another woman - whose name I couldn’t even remember.

After she moved the woman along and demanded I explain myself she quickly dismissed my suspicions about the whole Rick and Gia thing - she actually laughed at me, told me to grow up, and said she’s sure he made a move and sure Gia shot him down. She's sure that’s what happened because he came home that day complaining about ‘that b*** Gia’ and how stupid he thought she was, which apparently is what he always says about women who have the nerve to turn him down.

She admitted that it was typical Rick and that’s why she can never be really happy with him. She also admitted that because of everything she’s been through with Rick she could sort of understand me not handling things too well myself. After reading me the riot act she told me she’d cover for me with Gia, but I’d better not do something like that again.

I just keep digging a deeper hole for myself. I might actually be worse with relationships than I am at managing a football team.

Fortunately the August board meeting was another video conference as we were in Florida for a game. That meant I didn’t have to suffer through another social dinner with Gia and the Burns right off. I wasn’t paying much attention to the board, but I did get that I’m still secure.

In the pregame presser at Orlando Adrian again decried our lack of good foreign players. At least he’s consistent. For the game, aside from the loss of Diego, we will also be without Lee Nguyen and Justin Meram who are on international duty. Getting something from this game would be a bonus.

9/2/17 at Orlando City FC - MLS game 29 - 4231 Shuttleworth Farrell Goncalves O’Neill Baah Jacobson Duylio Sonora Rodriguez Agudelo Hajdarovic Orlando 4231 We were holding on by our fingernails the whole game but had a lead on 65 minutes, conceded late but held on for a point.

New England Revolution (12-5-11) at Orlando City SC (13-6-7)

1-1

9 Shots 12

1 On Target 4

10 Fouls 12

0 Yellow Cards 1

45% Possession 55%

Goals:Agudelo (46) Rochez (75)

Back in Foxboro after the Orlando trip we spent a lot of time looking at striker prospects to replace Diego, but since everyone is between seasons we aren't getting much for scouting reports and I won’t make an impulse buy, so for now we will be patient.

9/9/17 vs New York Red Bull - MLS game 30 - 4213 Shuttleworth Farrell Goncalves O’Neill Baah Jacobson Duylio Rodriguez Nguyen Meram Agudelo NYRB 4231 We fell behind early and had to make the switch to the 4231, then we dominated and actually scored on almost half of our chances. Still leaked another goal near the end. Win 4-2

New England Revolution (12-6-11) vs New York Red Bull (11-6-10)

4-2

13 Shots 14

8 On Target 3

8 Fouls 10

0 Yellow Cards 0

51% Possession 49%

Goals:Neagle (14,80) Meram (27) Agudelo (33,45,54)

We had 49 points my first year and then, well, let's not talk about last year. We are at 45 points now, 50 would be nice.

Juan agreed to a 4 year extension with clauses. I probably didn’t do any better than Mike at contract negotiations though, as his free release clause seems far too reasonable. Gideon Baah strained his stomach muscles in the weight room and will be out 3-4 weeks.

In Juan's press conference to announce his new contract he cited his admiration for me. Tom had reported he was having a hard time motivating himself to play for me at the beginning of the season, maybe this means he dislikes my motivational talks less now. Or maybe it just means he likes the money.

9/23/17 vs New York Red Bull (again) - MLS game 31 - 4231 Shuttleworth Woodbury Burton O’Neill Baah Jacobson Duylio Rodriguez Nguyen Meram Agudelo NYRB 4231 The game was back and forth, we took the lead in the first half on a Red Bull own goal and each keeper made a nice save or two. Win 1-0

New England Revolution (13-6-11) at New York Red Bull (11-6-11)

1-0

11 Shots 18

6 On Target 3

9 Fouls 17

0 Yellow Cards 0

46% Possession 54%

Goals: Gomes og(6)

Goncalves was injured during the game and will be out the rest of the season, which means the allocation kid Miller will be at left back.

Justin and Lee are back on international duty, which will probably cost them two of our last three games.

The US Cup was won by the Orange County Blues, a D3 Western division team who beat the New York Red Bull 2-0 in the final at Anteater Stadium in Irvine CA.

9/30/17 vs Vancouver Whitecaps - MLS game 32 - 4213 Shuttleworth Woodbury Burton O’Neill Miller Duylio Jacobson Rodriguez Nguyen Meram Agudelo. We used all three tactics and all three substitutions, nothing happening. At least we played good defense. Draw 0-0

New England Revolution (14-6-11) vs Vancouver Whitecaps (10-8-13)

0-0

13 Shots 12

2 On Target 7

9 Fouls 7

0 Yellow Cards 0

50% Possession 50%

Goals:--

Jayden had to deal with my mystery bar woman again, when the woman came to the office looking for me while Gia was there. Jayden made it seem like it was her husband the woman had slept with and threatened her with bodily harm if she returned. It was quick thinking on Jayden’s part, but now she has to deal with Gia commiserating with her about her awful man - which won’t be a good thing, especially since Gia can get rather… snarky. It seems the woman didn’t remember me either and quickly believed it was Rick she had slept with. Especially when she saw his picture on Jayden’s desk. I still don’t know who she is, and no one else managed to get her name either.

[edtheguy]

October 2017

We have been on a good run the last couple months, though it has been hard for me to fully enjoy with all of my self imposed personal distractions, but with two games to go at least one result will see us finish with our best record under my command. Next up home versus the very average Dallas squad.

10/7/17 vs FC Dallas - MLS game 33 - 4213 Shuttleworth Woodbury Burton O’Neill Miller Jones Jacobson Duylio Hajdarovic Rodriguez Agudelo. FC Dallas 4231 2DM. We had to switch to our 4231 instructions using the 4213 formation at 22 minutes, but then we took over and eased to a 2-0 win.

New England Revolution (14-7-11) vs FC Dallas (13-13-5)

2-0

11 Shots 8

5 On Target 3

11 Fouls 6

0 Yellow Cards 0

50% Possession 50%

Goals:Lloyd og (21) Agudelo (51)

And we have 52 points on the season, the team record is 59, which is unattainable, but it’s still been a good season - which I never would have believed before Gia and Jayden’s intervention to correct my attitude.

The American Soccer Chronicle wrote a nice feature before our last game of the regular season about the team bidding farewell to Gillette stadium and preparing for our new all soccer Revolution Stadium next season. It was a good read, but I don’t think Gillette will miss us much more than we will miss it, I’m sure the Patriots will put our old offices to good use.

10/15/17 vs Orlando City - MLS game 34 - 4231 Klewin Woodbury Miller O’Neill Baah Jacobson Duylio Nguyen Hajdarovic Meram Agudelo OCSC 4231. Juan Agudelo capitalized on two David Mateo mistakes to score a brace inside 10 minutes but then we couldn’t hold on as Baah and Miller had bad days of their own. Draw 2-2.

New England Revolution (15-7-11) vs Orlando City SC (14-9-9)

2-2

9 Shots 13

5 On Target 4

10 Fouls 8

0 Yellow Cards 0

44% Possession 56%

Goals:Agudelo (1,10) Larin (42) Higuita (49)

We finish the season at 15-8-11 for 53 points with 62 Goals For and 49 Goals Against.

We now have a week and a half off before the Wild Card games as a few teams still have one game to play. The only relevant matches next weekend are Chicago vs Columbus and the Red bull vs Montreal. Chicago and New York are currently battling for the last wild card spot, but Chicago, with a 2 point lead could actually move to third in the conference with a win, leapfrogging us as well as their opponent in the process.

On saturday the Red Bull failed to win, playing a goalless draw with the Impact, clinching a wild card spot for Hugo and his Chicago Fire. Chicago now plays a partially dead rubber tomorrow, but with a win they could move from the last wild card spot to the top wild card position.

And the next day Hugo got his bragging rights as neither his team or Greg’s Crew bothered to play defense in a 5-4 shootout. Igboananike scored a hat trick in the Fire win to give him 31 goals for the year. Sporting Kansas City won the supporters shield at a walk with a 22-7-5 record, 9 points clear of Preki’s United.

We get a home wild card game against Greg Berhalter’s Crew. Oh boy. Duylio will miss the game as he reached his yellow card threshold against OCSC.

After the obligatory ‘why can’t you beat Greg’ questions I unloaded when I was asked about his comments about me and my team, suggesting that the pressure was getting to him, calling him irrational and unprofessional and the media silly.

Orlando City beat Chicago in the day’s first wild card game, 4-2 in extra time. I feel bad for Hugo. Actually I kind of do - now He’ll have to listen to Adrian brag about all his wonderful foreign players too.

10/25/17 vs Columbus - MLS Wild Card game - 4231 Klewin Woodbury Burton O’Neill Baah Jacobson Jones Hajdarovic Nguyen Rodriguez Agudelo Columbus 4231. Knowing our players history to melt down on the big stage I ignored Tom’s suggestion to encourage them to keep our good run going and told them to relax. I also gave Cedrick Mabwati the Igboananike treatment. Juan Agudelo scored early and then missed several chances to extend our lead, but we did a good job of smothering Columbus and launching counter attacks all game, holding them to one shot on target through 78 minutes. Of course they scored on their second shot to tie the game, just as I finished telling Tom that extra time was a real possibility. At full time I let Tom tell the players he was disappointed in them, which was probably a mistake. In extra time we were a different team and Mabwati found his superman cape, scoring twice. The final count of scoring chances; for us - 12, for Columbus - 6. Loss 1-3.

New England Revolution vs Columbus Crew - MLS Eastern Conference Wild Card Game

1-3 et

27 Shots 16

11 On Target 6

19 Fouls 11

1 Yellow Cards 2

45% Possession 55%

Goals: Agudelo (37) Trapp (79) Mabwati (104,111)

At least I don’t need to keep track of the number of times I haven’t beaten “Greg”. The media will let me know. It's a lot.

Mabwati and Trapp were 1st and third in MLS player of the week voting. Juan won player of the month.

I guess we'll have to be satisfied with a decent regular season, and hopefully some signs of progress in the second half of the year.

Michelle Burns invited me to lunch, and when I couldn’t think of a way out of it she asked me what my intentions were with Gia while we ate. I don’t like that kind of pressure, especially now. I really don’t have any intentions anyway. Except maybe for Gia to not kill me when she inevitably learns about all the stupid things I’ve done (there was a quote from a reasonably popular movie that came out a couple years ago - something along the lines of “women always figure out the truth..” yeah, that’s so true, and there is no way it won’t be bad for me). I told Michelle I was just taking it one day at a time right now, with football taking most of my time I really hadn’t given it much thought. She told me I should, and that Gia already was.

That’s just great.

[edtheguy]

November 2017

My lunch with Michelle just made the post Board Meeting dinner even more uncomfortable for me, at least the meeting was as uneventful as ever, my job status is secure… which was actually kind of disappointing, I felt the end of the season really showed something, but whatever. Everyone put on a polite face for the dinner and there was lots of small talk.

I still wonder about this board’s complete lack of ambition - don’t get me wrong, I understand that I have probably still got a job because of it - but aside from their laissez faire attitude towards our record, they are hardly ever seen around the team, except for the monthly going-through-the-motions board meetings. I can’t complain though, I’m still employed and we are getting a new stadium.

We offered trials to several players, when I mentioned the trialists to her I had to promise Gianna that they wouldn’t interfere with thanksgiving this year.

The first week of the month I sat down with Tom and Mike to go over two things. 1) A detailed analysis of Preki’s tactical style and 2 ) An analysis of Greg Berhalter’s kryptonite.

Preki plays a 4312 narrow with direct passing and seems fairly balanced in all of his other tendencies. He only strays occasionally for a defensive 4141 and a last ditch attacking 424, we hammered out a trial 4312 that we could use following the same principles.

The Berhalter analysis was fruitless, comparing the teams he had success against and the teams that had success against him showed nothing useful, it was a real mixed bag on either side.

Martin Zuniga really impressed right from day one of his trial, he actually looked like a Juan Agudelo clone. Luke McCullough also looked good, he would move immediately to #1 on the central defender depth chart.

Mike signed a two year contract extension, Gia and I went to dinner with him and Michelle in Boston to celebrate. Michelle kept saying how nice it was, the four of us out on the town, and it seemed to me she looked at me each time she said it... maybe I’m just being paranoid though.

The next week I asked Mike who might be good designated players to replace Jermaine next year, and told him to focus on central defenders and midfielders

The most recent scouting report on AJ Soares still looks good, affordable and as good as McCullough, only he won’t use an international slot. We need to wait until Jan 1 when we will have more room under the cap and slots for off budget players before I pursue him.

None of Mike's Designated player suggestions had any interest in playing for us. I Offered a contract to Zuniga, I don’t see how we can pass on him without regretting it.

We hosted thanksgiving for Gia’s family and my kids at Gia’s place. Everything went well until people started asking when we were gonna get married. I’m noticing a trend here.

The American Soccer Messenger reported Agudelo’s free release clause - inaccurately, and couldn’t believe there wasn’t more interest at his ‘discounted’ rate

Tom signed another 2 year extension, which is fine - but I didn’t negotiate it. Apparently I have to send an email clarifying how these things re going to be handled, I need to be in charge of hiring and extending the coaching staff.

The Zuniga deal fell through because we don’t have the salary cap room, so I either wait until Jan 1 or release players now. Nope I checked and under MLS roster rules we can’t release anyone now… we’ll have to wait until 1/1…. damn.

December 2017 (part 1)

Board Meeting, no change. Afterwards was the Burn’s holiday party where once again Gia and Michelle had a lengthy one on one conversation. I really didn’t want to know about what.

Jermaine Jones announced he would retire at the end of next season. Nope, still not offering him a contract, sorry.

We were actually fairly well represented in the year end awards ceremony in Philadelphia, which I attended with Gia as well as the awarded players and their significant others;

Juan Agudelo was third in the golden boot with 21 league goals.

Kyle Miller won rookie of the year, which means to date we have seen more benefit from the one ‘allocation’ that we won than the entire yearly ‘superdraft’.

Andrew Farrell won defender of the year. (Maybe he was better at wingback?????)

Peter Vermes of Sporting KC won coach of the year, ahead of Preki, which I don’t think is just, Pete had a top club that was expected to win and Preki took over the cellar dwellers and started winless in 8 before finishing second overall, to me that is the definition of a good coaching job.

The Kraft Sports group didn’t even pretend that we were important this year and scheduled their holiday party the same night as the MLS awards which, aside from the principle of it, didn’t bother me in the least.

After we got back from the banquet I sent Tom to the waiver draft with Mike. As expected they didn’t find any players of interest.

Jason Milne called asking about Juan’s new, higher than previously reported free release clause. I told him I wasn’t worried and that I was looking forward to working with Juan for a number of more years.

FC Dallas made an actual offer for Lee Nguyen, the 9th overall pick in the first round of the superdraft and the 18th pick in the 3rd round. With Lee’s age and injury history I might have accepted this t if I already had Zuniga in the fold. But we don’t have Zuniga, and the ‘superdraft’ really hasn’t been so ‘super’ lately… Rejected.

Had to talk to Jason Milne about FC Lorient’s rumored interest in Agudelo, I told him Juan wasn’t for sale and and when he asked I said that it is easier to deal with people you respect.. of course…

Goncalves is now an American citizen, which is good news for us as well as it frees up another international slot.

I confirmed the signing of Terry Tierney from the academy. The kid is a moderate prospect, but he’s a keeper, and with Ford’s contract expiring we need a no 3, so despite the serial killer look in his eyes I agreed to his signing.

Mike made an offer for 18 year old American winger Roland Beyer who played in a few games for Sunderland in the Championship last year. He looks outstanding, but the last scout report indicated he had no intention of joining us so I can only hope Mike was very convincing.

Received notification of the expiration of Sonora and Baah’s loans, made offer to extend Sonora’s loan. Darmstadt wants a transfer offer for Baah. I might wait until January for that one. Two days later Sonora’s loan extension went through.

Supporters shield champions Sporting KC want Nguyen too, they offered their 10th overall pick and a 3rd rounder. Rejected.

Roland Beyer agreed to a loan move. At only 18 he would slot in ahead of Mario Rodriguez as our #1 left winger, and he is American. Confirmed, with some reservations, as at 18 he is still a largely unknown commodity. Immediately after this Mike made a loan offer for 26 year old forward Emmanuel Prisco.

Gia, who’s real estate practice is booming booked an Italian Christmas vacation for us, her parents and my kids, with Jayden’s help. Sounds like a wonderful trip, but maybe a little too over the top for my tastes. Gia is really looking forward to it though, and her enthusiasm is infectious.

I did offer the agreed on 110k to purchase Gideon Baah. We don’t have so many reliable defenders that I can really pass on that.

On December 22, 21017 the New England Board had proudly announced the completion of the Club’s move to Revolution Stadium. During a brief ceremony at the club’s new stadium a spokesperson for the board declared that the club anticipated the new stadium to cause a surge in support and interest from the local community. It was reported that the club took out a loan of 27.8m in order to complete the work. Revolution Stadium in Boston MA, built in 2017, is an all seater ground, capacity 19,000 with the possibility to be expanded to 23,750

I guess it’s time to move to the city.

The Emmanuel Prisco loan deal went through and came to my desk to be finalized. He would give us a full roster of first team forwards, but at 26 he’s not that impressive and his track record for goal scoring in Colombia is - well it couldn’t be worse. He hasn’t. So I cancelled the deal. If you you’re a forward and you haven’t scored by the time you are 26, well…..

I postponed leaving for Italy while I was waiting for a midfielder trialist to show, when he hadn’t by the 25th Tom volunteered to cut his vacation short and come back the day after Christmas and I left, looking forward to a nice italian vacation to recharge my batteries before we start another season long grind.

[edtheguy]

December 2017 (part 2)

So, vacation in Italy.

You could say it did not go well.

Gia was unreasonably upset that I was late- she felt it ‘was just like last year’ and that it showed she wasn’t important to me. I didn’t know what to do, but it’s obvious that I’m pretty good at screwing things up. She was just downright nasty about it though and it made me mad, I was just trying to do my best to balance work and our relationship and her reaction seemed totally overboard to me.

We finally had a major blow up where I got defensive and somewhere along the way I fought back by blurting out that I knew all about Rick hitting on her and the only reason he did was to get back at me for sleeping with Jayden. Which got me called a few rather obscene names and slapped across the face. The woman packs a punch. That was definitely not a good idea, what the **** was I thinking?

I am an idiot, I spend months dreading the day that Gia inevitably finds out about my indiscretions only to come right out and tell her about one myself, at the worst possible time. It’s finally out there now which is for the best... I guess. I’m not sure if it is a good thing - the fallout so far has been about as apocalyptic as I feared. At least I made it back to the country alive. My kids don’t know what’s up, but they know it’s bad, and everyone was completely uncomfortable by the time we got home.

I returned to a stack of work, 73 messages, 5 transfer notifications and a PA that was very happy to see both of us. Until she talked to Gia… then I was in hot water with both of them and Gianna was yelling at Jayden in the middle of my reception area, calling her some very unflattering names. Before I could escape that already uncomfortable situation my mystery woman from the bar walked into the office.

I couldn’t believe my eyes, this was getting as bizarre as a game against Columbus, who the **** writes this stuff?

Anyway, the woman, who is apparently named Francesca, had figured out that Rick wasn’t the head coach of the Rev’s after all and therefore wasn’t the man who ‘took advantage of her’ while she was ‘too drunk to know what she was doing’ - that accusation got me another slap in the face from an irate and very red faced Gianna, who then stormed out of the office. My head was spinning so much by this point that I don’t even remember what she said to me - there were more than a few colorful words used though.

I thought this ‘Francesca’ woman was after money and immediately went on the offensive and told her she would get no such satisfaction from me. I said that there was no way I took advantage of her because I was in no better shape than she was that night and if she thought she could blackmail me by threatening to make my image any worse than it already was she should read a sports page. But she told me she could care less about my money or image, she just wanted to make sure I didn’t tell anyone about her, and that I would swear nothing happened if anyone asked.

What the ****? I told her I’d gladly say nothing happened between us, but if that was what she wanted was it really a good idea to come storming into my office during working hours - twice - drop a bomb on my relationship and then ask for a favor?

That was when she broke down in tears.

What the ****?

No, really, what the ****?

[tenthreeleader]

You've done extremely well with the relationship angles in this piece. Always an engaging and fun read. Oh, and the football is good too.

[edtheguy]

Thank you 10-3 - It's been fun to write so far. And yeah, the football.... It's been good for someone I guess. Like the rest of the MLS - we've done a good job of making them look good. It's still not my favorite league to play, but it definitely hasn't been boring. All those extra roster rules are really something.

January 2018 (part 1)

My mystery woman, Francesca - Frannie - from what I could gather is married to a very wealthy man and wishes to keep it that way. She had been trying to drown her sorrows the night I ended up at the bar - apparently marrying for money isn’t all it’s cut out to be. Now she has a private investigator following her and is worried about her prenuptial agreement. She wants the whole thing to not have happened. That’s a big ego boost for me right there. Once I told her that I would gladly agree it never happened she sheepishly went on her way, hopefully to never be seen again.

After she left I got out of the office as quickly as I could - but I wound up back very early the next morning. I couldn’t bear to stay at home any longer because it just gave me time to think about how lousy I feel about what I've done to Gianna. Looking back, I have been a pretty rotten person over the two years we have been together and she has not only put up with me but helped hold me together - until now. And this is how I repay her.

She deserves better than that.

Needless to say with all of that going on my first week back at work was rather disorienting, there were new players - two trialists and one loanee that Mike must have got while I was away -a gazillion news items, five transfer inquiries, and, of course, my unsettled personal life with two women shunning me, and one disavowing me, as well as the need to find a place to live in the city.

The hunt for a townhouse in South Boston had been almost fun, but now Gianna is sending me off to work with a Boston real estate agent on my own, which isn’t surprising. At least she is still taking my calls, which I think is a good sign, but it always ends with her either in tears or yelling at me so I’m not sure what to do about that. I do think I prefer the yelling though, while I deserve them both the tears really don’t make me happy at all. On top of that my personal assistant has told me in no uncertain terms that I am an idiot (yes, that is the censored version of what she actually called me).

In actual work related news the move to make Gideon Baah’s loan permanent was also finalized while I was away, and now I’m not so sure that was a good thing. My vacation is looking like a complete train wreck.

The loanee, Swansea’s Marcus Tavernier, looks like a decent player, but for him to play he would have to take Farrell’s right back spot, so probably isn’t worth the international slot he is taking, I will need to decide while we can still terminate his loan.

The trialists both look good. They are both still teenagers and already could be impact players. They might be worth the slots.

In worldwide football news:

Messi won golden Ball

Celso Borges won North American player of the year

Keylor Navas won north american goalkeeper of the year

When I asked for reports on the academy I actually got a comprehensive summary, and there are some 17-18 year olds that look pretty good, so I asked Kelly Brasil, our best scout for a report card on the most advanced prospects.

We now only have one designated player, Juan Agudelo, and three internationals. This is the opportunity for a major improvement I have been waiting for.

There wasn’t much point to this month’s board meeting, job secure, they like Mike’s signing of Sonora, don’t like my signing of Klewin. I even went back to being third wheel with the Burns at dinner, as Gia had to ‘work'.

When the requested scouting reports came back, I told Mike to Target 20 year old Ajax midfielder Donny van de Beek as a Designated player. According to our scouts he is already better than Jermaine ever was, and he’s not already over the hill. This is the kind of investment that I’m looking for a DP slot. I really was hoping for a central defender, but the best suggestion Mike had, who would consider joining us was Rasmus Thelander, former Portland Timber defender, who was only average in his last stint in the MLS and is already in his 30’s. I can get a comparable defender for much less by bringing A.J. Soares back from Norway. So for now I’ll keep the third DP slot in our pocket.

Two of the Academy’s midfielders came back as very promising, Roberto Noriega was already rated 2.5 stars with 4-5 star potential, and Scott Pownal was 1.5/4.5, but I won’t offer them contracts unless we wind up with roster slots available.

Hopefully the football team comes together because I’ve done a fine job of ruining my home life. I can’t even enjoy my time alone right now, none of my old hobbies are making me happy at the moment.

[edtheguy]

January 2018 (part 2)

Mike reported that he could not agree to terms with Ajax for van de Beek, so I stepped in. I offered van de Beek a pre-contract for July, when his current deal expires. I also offered 375k to Viking for A.J. Soares.

van de Beek immediately agreed to terms. At 900k per year he will cost us less than ⅓ what Jermaine did against the boards cap, and as a DP he will only count the base DP amount against the MLS cap. Viking also quickly accepted our offer for Soares and Mike started contract negotiations.

We finalized the signing of 24 year old Mexican ST Martin Zuniga and once he arrived at practice the coaches agreed with our scouts assessment of him being just a tick being Juan Agudelo. Jayden talked me into sending Martin on the language course, might as well use some of the teams 16m in the bank on something, the press asked if Mario would be helping his countryman, and I said of course.

A.J. agreed to terms, and he will actually join us this transfer window, on Feb 21st.

Offered Alidin to MLS and non MLS clubs, with Beyer and Zuniga on board we won't have a position or money available to give him a roster spot. He was our hero when he was hot last year - unfortunately that was only for 5 games.

Everyone in the MLS wants Lee Nguyen and London Woodbury but only for draft picks, and frankly from what I’ve seen, picks in the superdraft really aren’t worth it.

I convinced the board to make a 3.7m improvement to our training facilities which had dropped in comparison to other MLS clubs last season, They initially refused, I had to stress the importance in order to get them to agree.

We are at 5.3m against the board salary budget of 7.75m, with van de Beek, Soares and Baah still to arrive, at 900k, 425k, and 375k, which would at 1.7m to bring us to 7.0, yet the board claims we are committed to 8.6m 900k over budget. I’m missing something here.

The new offices in the stadium, and the stadium itself are pretty alright. I have to keep pinching myself that this is really where I work now. I grew up a fan of old sports stadiums, ones with character and history, like the Red Sox Fenway Park, but I have to admit new can be ok too. Especially when it’s done right, and the Kraft’s might not be ‘soccer’ people, but they sure know how to run an organization and our new sports complex has plenty of character.

I’ve been looking at a reasonably priced condo on Massachusetts Ave, within walking distance of Revolution Stadium. All I can think is that it would be nice to get Gia’s input.

I would really like to salvage our relationship if I can, but I don’t know if it’s even possible - it really shouldn’t be, but Gia is still speaking to me so I have hope. I told Michelle that and she said I didn’t deserve Gia, but that Gia would probably listen to me if I was serious. Then she said that if I had something to say to Gianna I had better make it good. She said I had hurt Gianna more than she could say, in fact the reason Gia was so wound up when I got to Italy was because she had been planning to propose to me while we visited the villa that Kate and Andrew got married at, but that part of the trip was the day before I actually showed up so her whole plan was thrown off. I really did make a mess of things there.

I transfer listed several superfluous players including Alidin, who Mike informed me was upset and asked if he should talk to him or if I wanted to - I told Mike to give it a shot and Alidin dropped his concerns.

Sent Mike and Tom to the not-so-super-draft.

Draftees:

Steve Pratt - 21 year old AML, who actually scouts at 2.5/5.0 and has blazing speed. He is also a resolute young man with elite determination, leadership skills and boatloads of flair. Very interesting.

Chris Munoz - 21 year old left back - nothing to see here, 1.5 to 3 star potential.

Bill Ready - 21 year old right back - not much better than Munoz, tops out at 3.5 star potential.

We got a perfect A+ for our draft. If Pratt is a homerun than that would be legit - it only takes one, but we’ll see.

The New York Cosmos took Alidin on loan for 100% of his salary. This works for me.

I have found several nice restaurants around the stadium including the usual patriot place type chain restaurants that went up with the stadium. I like the pre existing local flair more though, places like Moonshine 152, Stephs in Southie and my absolute favorite, Worden Hall. I am staying away from the local watering holes though, I’ve learned my lesson there.

The board announced our pre season schedule of away games at; Dayton Dutch Lions, FC Edmonton, FC Montreal, and the Ottawa Fury. I sent offers to two local teams, the Boston Rams, and Mass United, for camp opening friendlies at our new stadium, each of which the finance office projects to spin a tidy $28,500 profit. Both clubs accepted our offer. The stadium staff and foodservice companies thanked me too - everyone wants a couple of dry runs before opening day, March 10th vs. Vancouver, to work out the kinks.

All the players were positive in the team meeting, The staff had nothing to say, except Ian with his far fetched formation suggestions, a 3-2-3-2 Ian, really?

1/29/18 vs Boston Rams - friendly - This is the unofficial opening of the Brand New Revolution Stadium, located just off the MBTA stop and I93 in South Boston. 4213 Klewin Farrell burton O’Neill Goncalves Duylio Jacobson Nguyen Sonora Beyer Agudelo. Boston 4231. Our new AML Roland Beyer announced his presence in training camp with authority, scoring a hat trick in the first half. With a 4-0 lead at the half Beyer and Agudelo came out for Pratt and Zuniga, and we lost the second half 1-0. All in all a good performance though.

New England Revolution vs Boston Rams - Friendly

4-1

17 Shots 3

9 On Target 1

3 Fouls 16

0 Yellow Cards 5

51% Possession 49%

Goals:Nguyen (pen 9) Beyer (17,22, pen 37) Schmid (46)

I had a long talk with Michelle Burns again the day before the game and she actually got Gia to come to the game and meet me afterwards. I brought Gianna down on the field where I had a private table set up for a late dinner, catered by our foodservice company, which they were happy to do as a thank you for getting their dry run in the pre season friendlies.

I apologized as completely as I could manage and told her there were no excuses, but I truly wanted to be a better person. I admitted my flaws and told her I needed support as well as someone to keep me in line and that the thought of her not being there terrified me. I also told her I had not been planning to get married ever again, but that she is special and has changed many of my opinions of the world. I admitted again that I would miss her more than I could say if she wasn’t in my life so if she were to take me back maybe we could see if the wounds could be healed and then who knows...

She didn’t cry, or yell, but after a painfully long pause she said she needed time to think and we said goodnight.

Well, that went well, right?

OK then, back to work.

[edtheguy]

February 2018

At the Board Meeting I was told that I was still secure. Now they like O’Neill and dislike Klewin. Well that is all me. I begged out of dinner, Mike said thanks - now he’d have to listen to Michelle b**** about me all night. I told him she was probably right, but that’s what you get when you play matchmaker - it doesn’t always work out. he said he didn’t think he’d say that to her, he liked being married.

2/2/18 vs Mass United - friendly - 4213 Klewin Farrell Burton O’Neill Tavernier Jacobson Duylio Rodriguez Nguyen Beyer Agudelo. Mass United 4231N. This game was complete and comprehensive, as a preseason match against lesser teams ought to be. Beyer scored another 2 goals - which has me a little worried, we've all seen ‘practice heros’ players that look great in practice or scrimmage but can’t perform when it counts, hopefully that’s not the case here. Even the second string performed well in this game Win 6-0.

New England Revolution vs Mass United - Friendly

6-0

32 Shots 6

18 On Target 0

1 Fouls 15

0 Yellow Cards 3

51% Possession 49%

Goals:Beyer (2,16) Rodrigues (18) Meram (62,88) Herivaux (85)

Andrew Jacobson left the game with an injury and afterwards Dr. Allen brought me dire news, Andrew had suffered a hip injury that would cost him 4-5 months, or 2-3 months if he was sent to see a specialist. I signed him up for both the specialist and the disabled list. Now I’m concerned about our projected budget shortfall. We need another midfielder.

Our lowest cost option would be the Academy prospect Haverhill MA native Scott Pownall, who can play both DM positions in our tactic as well as central mid. But while the scouts rate him just below Andrew on the depth chart, I’m not convinced.

Upon further review of our midfield situation both incoming transfers, last years loanee Baah, and returning Rev alum A.J. Soares can play the DM in a pinch, so further signings are not required.

Jayden informed me of another allocation, for CM Kevin Vargas. I asked for a scouting report. The report came back inconclusive and we can’t spend our participation and roster spot on that if we win, so I passed.

Mike came to me to sign off on a completed transfer of striker Dominik Martinovic from Bayern.. The price 140k, and talent looked good, but we already have a full stable of forwards and are over the boards salary by 1m (this would make it 1.2m), if I’m going to risk the wrath of the board, it will be for more midfielders not strikers. I told Mike everything looked good, we just weren’t in a position to add strikers right now and rejected the deal, with regrets.

Before he left the office though Mike asked if he could have a minute, he wanted to talk about something. Apprehensively I told him sure. He told me that after talking to Michelle he had looked into getting Jayden a different position in Kraft Sports group. He said Michelle had assured him that if I wanted to make things work with Gia that would have to happen. He said the Patriots had a higher paying position that she could have, and that would be better for everyone, it would clear my issue, give Jayden a raise, and let her stay in Foxboro to work instead of commuting to Boston every day. I told him it made a lot of sense and thanked him for the suggestion.

We begin the board arranged tour of away friendlies tomorrow in Dayton and at the end of the day Jayden brought Gia, who refused to even look at Jayden, into my office and closed the door firmly behind her on the way out. I can see what Mike was talking about, the two of them were once oil and water - now it's probably more like kerosene and a flame.

Gia walked over to me and gave me gentle hug, took my face in her hands and stared at me for a while. I had no idea whether this was going to be good or bad, but I wasn’t about to make it worse by saying something stupid, so I just waited.

When she finally spoke everything was ok again. She told me she needed time to think, not just because of what I’d done and how much it hurt her but because if she was ever going to end it between us it had to be now, she was getting too close, and if she was going to accept my apology and take me back then she was committed. But she said she knew she knew I was a good person (I’m not sure what makes her think that - but knowing that she does makes me want to be a good person) and after thinking it over she decided that she could give relationship another chance, as long as I promised to be faithful and was open with her about my feelings. I told her I did promise and I would do my best to be open and she gave me a much bigger hug, wished me luck on our trip, and told me we had a lot to talk about, and that she had a better town house for me to look at when I got back to town.

I was far more relieved than I had expected I would be after she left. Strangely I didn’t even have a feeling of dread about us ‘having a lot to talk about.’

After she left I called Jayden into my office and told her about the Patriots job and strongly recommended she apply for it. On her way out she told me it sounded like a good idea. Hopefully that is settled. Of course she sounded angry when she said it….

2/10/18 at Dayton Dutch Lions - friendly - 4213 Klewin Farrell Burton O’Neill Goncalvez Tavernier Duylio Rodriguez Nguyen Beyer Agudelo Dayton 4213. Dayton was a much better team tha Boston or Mass U. and they came out in a formation that mirrored ours . What followed was one of those very, very frustrating games. We looked like the lower league side and never, ever, had a chance. Juan scored on a wonder strike early and then we cowered in a corner the rest of the game. Loss 1-2

New England Revolution at Dayton Dutch Lions - Friendly

1-2

9 Shots 10

2 On Target 6

4 Fouls 10

0 Yellow Cards 1

47% Possession 53%

Goals:Agudelo (13) Annicherro (46) Bruner (52)

After the game in Dayton we had a travel day, a couple days of practice and then we were off to the great white north - way north - to visit FC Edmonton. I didn’t have a chance to see Gia, she was at a conference, but we did talk on the phone. Just hearing her voice is a good thing.

2/17/18 at FC Edmonton - friendly - 4231 Shuttleworth Farrell Goncalves Woodbury Baah Duylio O’Neill Nguyen Rodriguez Pratt Agudelo Edmonton 4-2-2-2 2DMW And this game was the Juan and Joel show as Agudelo scored a first half brace on a pair of Sonora assists, after the latter came on for an injured Mario Rodriguez. Switched to the 4141 once we had the 2 goal lead and didn’t allow so much as an attempt on goal the rest of the way. Win 2-0

New England Revolution at FC Edmonton - Friendly

2-0

15 Shots 7

6 On Target 2

7 Fouls 16

1 Yellow Cards 5

57% Possession 43%

Goals:Agudelo (22,37)

Fortunately Mario only has a bruised head and will miss 5-8 days.

After the game I broke a team rule. When we go on the road it's a business trip, we aren’t supposed to bring family along. When I got back to my hotel room in Edmonton Gia was there. Or at least someone who looked a lot like Gia, except she was way overdressed, wearing a full length red evening gown, high heels and shoulder length black gloves. I should have sent her away, but I did not. I don’t know what the practical purpose of her attire was, but it sure was fun to watch it come off.

Actually that was probably the purpose. I told her the makeup night was worth breaking team rules. She replied we didn’t break any rules, she wasn't there as my girlfriend - and got out the portfolio for the townhouse she wants me to look at. When I said you must close a lot of deals if that's your presentation, she replied that she did close a lot of deals but that presentation was only for me.

Okay then, I’m a lucky guy. Off to Montreal.

A.J. Soares suffered a double hernia training at Viking, he will be out 2 months. That’s almost funny. At least he will only miss the end of our preseason and a couple early games, so the timing could definitely be worse.

With the contract guarantee date approaching, I offered Darrius Barnes mutual termination and he accepted. While his contract was only 90k, we are now only 69k over budget according to the financial office. I still haven't gotten an explanation from them in english, but I think what's happening is they are projecting us to spend our current salary+space to the MLS cap+ our pending transfers, essentially counting the pending transfers twice. Since our pending transfers are going into the space we currently have under the cap, hopefully we will be fine.

At the press conference to re-introduce A.J. to the media they were both incredulous that we would bring him back and felt he was an impressive capture for the club. I love the media.

3/24/18 at FC Montreal - friendly - 4231 Shuttleworth Farrell Burton Woodbury Munoz Herivaux Miller Meram Nguyen Beyer Zuniga Montreal 4231. Oh my goodness, some things never change. Woodbury must never play central defender for the Revs again, am I a slow learner or something? The other pitiful performance was Munoz at right back, but he just played like an inexperienced kid, which he is, so that can be forgiven, a little. Anyway once again, we looked like we belonged in the lower leagues. Loss 2-3.

New England Revolution at FC Montreal - Friendly

2-3

11 Shots 9

4 On Target 5

5 Fouls 10

0 Yellow Cards 1

46% Possession 54%

Goals:Meram (1) Granados (18,44)Dominguez (38) Zuniga (39)

The MLS announced an allocation for Shane Stevenson and I had him scouted. He looks good and at 17 has a high ceiling, but I am unsure so we will pass.

MLS season previews list us 9th, which is progress.

Mario Rodriguez came down with an injury in practice will be out 3 weeks with a groin strain.

When Jayden got the official job offer from the Pat’s which came with a very healthy raise she accepted immediately. She had her desk cleaned out by the end of the day and left without so much as a goodbye, which is a shame after all we’ve been through together, but I’m not really in a position to do anything about it. I have bigger concerns right now.

I am looking forward to getting to spend some time at home after our last preseason away game, I still haven’t been able to spend much time with Gia because of the combination of a rigorous pre season training routine and all theses away friendlies.

[tenthreeleader]

This continues to be a very nice, easy read. Like the pacing quite a bit.

[edtheguy]

Thank you, I chose the pace out of necessity - I was worried that if the writing either slowed down my play or got too far behind where I was in game then I'd lose interest and the story would die. It does seem to be working out very well so far.

March 2018

I had an ad posted for a new PA. This ought to be interesting. Gianna didn’t look exactly happy when I told her about Jayden, but she said that it was good and would save us having to talk about her, as far as she was concerned Jayden was a bad memory. I said ok.

Board Meeting, secure, pleased with the number of young players, disappointed with Klewin. We were restored to our regular post meeting dinner with the Burns and it was almost comfortable again. We went to Worden Hall and Gianna and I stayed after for some drinks so we could talk.

As much as I usually dread conversations about feelings or relationships, I didn’t mind this at all. We are in the same place with our relationship now, we are both looking to patch the holes and see how far we can really go. I told her many times how much it broke my heart to realize just how much I had hurt her and to her credit she tried to save me from some of the details. Like how she had planned telling me how much she loved me and proposing in front of both our families. Or how after we got back she took Rick up on his offer. That hurt, but it was no less than I deserved. By the end of the evening we were almost as close as we ever had been.

I think this might actually work out between us. If it does I need to think about making it permanent. I need Gianna in my life, she provides a compass and safety net for my life that is truly needed and I don’t like the idea of her not being there at all.

Martin Zuniga strained a stomach muscle in training, out 3-4 weeks. We can still field a team but our depth is lacking.

I re-named Goncalves as captain and appointed Jacobson as vice captain, over Tom's Suggestion of Nguyen. Mike has better leadership and is more professional. The players seemed to receive the appointments well.

3/5/18 at Ottawa Fury - Friendly - 4213 Klewin Farrell Burton Goncalves Baah O’Neill Duylio Nguyen Sonora Beyer Agudelo Ottawa: 4-1-4-1 We were completely dominated in every way. If I thought the other pre season losses were bad, I had another thing coming. We couldn’t even manage a shot on net until the 86th minute. I broke my lets be positive attitude and took the team talk from Tom for some yelling, I think it’s needed here. I also told several players that they had played lazy games and let themselves down. Loss 0-2

New England Revolution at Ottawa Fury - Friendly

0-2

6 Shots 13

1 On Target 6

4 Fouls 9

0 Yellow Cards 2

41% Possession 59%

Goals:Paulo Junior (40,87)

Maybe it’s time for a new team captain? I don’t really have the right player for the job right now, but Jose was one of the (chronic) underperformers in the traditional last preseason stinker. I need to find a way to change this teams attitude and consistency. Pratt, Soares and Duylio were all named stand in’s and they are all either professional or resolute.

Jose has dropped off a cliff in Tom’s depth charts too, now ranking 7th at central defender. He will receive an automatic one year extension if he plays in 25 games, but with his declining skills it’s looking like that will sort itself out.

Juan told the news about my tirade, which frankly doesn’t bother me too much. Roland Beyer stubbed his toe and will be out 5-8 days. So out injured for our season opener are Jacobson, Soares, Rodriguez, Zuniga and Beyer. Some things never change.

When I got back Gia showed me the townhouse she found on St. George St. She was right, it was a better property, with a old colonial feel, a back deck off the kitchen and views of historic Franklin Square out the front windows. It is also literally a stone's throw from Revolution Stadium. I put in an offer. It would be nice not to have to drive to Boston from Foxboro every day.

The press asked about war of words with Vancouver’s coach Carl Robinson, which he already denied. I joined him. They also remarked on the momentous occasion of opening Revolution Stadium.

The board's annual expectations message was a little more ambitious this year, expecting top half in league and shield, instead of mid-table, but they still don’t care about the cup.

3/10/18 vs Vancouver Whitecaps - MLS G1 - 4213 Klewin Farrell O’Neill Baah Tavernier Miller Duylio Nguyen Sonora Pratt Agudelo Vancouver: 4231 2DM. As always, after a worrisome preseason I had no idea what to expect but at least we played defense. Our forwards, on the other hand couldn't hit water if they fell from a boat (not even if the boat was actually in the water). Draw 0-0

New England Revolution (0-0-0) vs Vancouver Whitecaps (0-0-0)

0-0

14 Shots 5

3 On Target 0

7 Fouls 8

3 Yellow Cards 1

50% Possession 50%

Goals:--

And we are off to Texas for a midweek game. At least we don’t have to do it two weeks in a row like a couple years ago.

The board announced that we sold 7,961 season tickets this year, up from 7,505 last. The new stadium is already paying dividends. Now the team needs to do it’s part.

Marcus Tavernier was called up for England’s U19 team. Roland Beyer will be back from injury and in the lineup against the Dynamo, both Mario Rodriguez and Martin Zuniga are still a few days away. The starters from game one are all mostly recovered so we will go with the same lineup otherwise.

3/14/18 at Houston Dynamo - MLS G2 - 4213 Klewin Farrell O’Neill Baah Tavernier Miller Duylio Nguyen Sonora Beyer Agudelo Houston; 4231 2DM. This time, at least we scored. But every defender had a terrible game and we surrendered three in the first half, England U19 international Marcus Tavernier was the worst. Ugh. I remained calm and told them it was unacceptable. Lee Nguyen had a bad attitude so I told him aggressively I expected more. Loss 1-3.

New England Revolution (0-1-0) at FC Dallas (0-1-0)

1-3

7 Shots 13

4 On Target 5

6 Fouls 7

0 Yellow Cards 1

46% Possession 54%

Goals:Castillo (4,36) Mota (14) Agudelo (46)

We survived the rest of the week unscathed and returned home to face the Timbers on Saturday.

3/17/18 vs Portland Timbers - MLS G3 - 4213 (tweak - control w higher line and more pressing my Preki changes suck) Klewin Woodbury Burton Baah Goncalves O’Neill Duylio Tavernier Nguyen Beyer Agudelo. Portland;4231 2DM. Another dissapointing game as we let Portland walk all over us and create scoring chance after scoring chance, but only surrendered once - on a penalty given by Goncalves. A switch to boa at 60 minutes and the removal of the once again underperforming Lee Nguyen led to a nice goal from his replacement Joel Sonora on a great pass from Juan Agudelo to tie. Draw 1-1.

New England Revolution (0-1-1) vs Portland Timbers (1-0-1)

1-1

15 Shots 14

5 On Target 2

8 Fouls 6

1 Yellow Cards 3

45% Possession 55%

Goals: Valeri (pen 36) Sonora (61)

We held a coaches meeting to see if we could make any more subtle improvements to the 4213 tactic, which had gotten pretty far from its original form before we reverted last game. RGA to DLP, A to BWM, toned CMA down to BBMS and made F9S DLFA.

3/24/18 at San Jose Earthquakes - MLS G4 - 4213 Klewin Farrell Burton Baah Goncalves Herivaux Duliyo Rodriguez Sonora Beyer Agudelo San Jose 442. Terrible performance, Juan was pissy at both of my team talks and came out at half we never managed a single shot on goal. What is going on? We aren’t this bad. At least we played defense.

New England Revolution (0-2-1) at San Jose Earthquakes (1-1-1)

0-0

10 Shots 17

0 On Target 9

11 Fouls 6

0 Yellow Cards 0

46% Possession 54%

Goals:--

At this week's coaches discussion we made more changes to the 4213, back to structured, removed the deep playmaker. Tried to stay positive and make methodical improvements.

I hired a very professional former collegiate footballer as my new PA, a young man (Gia will like that) named Kenny Baker who has aspirations to move into a regular front office job someday.

3/28/18 vs Colorado Rapids - MLS G5 - 4213 Klewin Farrell Burton Baah Goncalves Duylio O’Neill Nguyen Meram Rodriguez Agudelo Colorado; 4231 2DM. Colorado came to town with the best record in the MLS and we finally played a two way solid game of football. The latest, structured 4213 with less specialist duties got us a 1-0 lead and control of the game until Colorado opened up in the second half. When we started feeling pressure we switched to the 4141 and scored a second goal on the counter. And for the second game in a row we played defense. Win 2-0.

New England Revolution (0-3-1) vs Colorado Rapids (3-1-0)

2-0

11 Shots 9

5 On Target 5

6 Fouls 15

0 Yellow Cards 0

53% Possession 47%

Goals:Burton (4) Nguyen (74)

The press congratulated me on breaking a six game winless sting (Had it really been that long? I hadn’t noticed...) I stayed positive and said I was happy for the players who had worked so hard.

The day after the game Mike came to me to approve a finalized transfer for 20 year old South Korean midfielder Park Dae-Dong. I signed off without hesitation, and told Mike he looked fantastic. If Mike's scouting report on him is correct this young man looks like a wonderkid. His skills grade out as world class in first touch, technique, long shots, passing, and jumping reach, and he is borderline in a lot of other areas. At just 20 those are crazy ratings. We’ll see if the coaches agree once we run him through some training sessions.

After Parks first training session the coaches were all smiles, Mike’s report was spot on. The only holes in the kids game are bravery and leadership, of course those could be big holes. He does seem rather professional though, so hopefully he will be able to put the final product in come game time.

The press mentioned that Mike's friend Hong Ming-Bo would probably be a help for the young man, I agreed. Actually I’m sure that had something to do with Park choosing us over SLB.

The only player below our fitness threshold for saturdays game was Mario, so Roland will come back into the lineup, and hopefully Park will come in off the bench.

3/31/18 at Montreal Impact - MLS G6 - 4213 Klewin Farrell Burton Baah Goncalves Duylio O’Neill Nguyen Meram Beyer Agudelo Montreal; 4231. We didn’t play the game I was looking for as we let Montreal have control and win too many one on ones, and we fell behind on 2 first half goals. But it might be the game we need, as we denied Montreal all three points by coming from behind twice, and didn’t give in when the going got rough. Down 2-1 at 55 minutes Lee Nguyen made it easy for me to bring in Park by playing lazy uninspired football and in the 88th minute good team defending sprung a counter attack that saw brilliant link up from Juan to Tavernier, who had come in as a sub in the midfield, and he made a brilliant one touch pass to…. Park Dae-Dong who scored the equalizer on a lightening shot off the post and in.

New England Revolution (1-3-1) at FC Montreal (3-2-0)

2-2

7 Shots 11

3 On Target 6

7 Fouls 11

1 Yellow Cards 1

43% Possession 57%

Goals Moxie (13) Meram (17) Bienvenu (32) Dae-Dong (88)

How’s that for a debut? Needless to say every single question from the press post match was about Park Dae-Dong.

[tenthreeleader]

Needless to say every single question from the press post match was about Park Dae-Dong.

I'd make a comment about porn star names but there's really no need.

Another fine update. Good to see the Revs finding a little form.

[edtheguy]

I'd make a comment about porn star names but there's really no need.

Another fine update. Good to see the Revs finding a little form.

Yeah, FM gives us some unexpected gems doesn't it? I decided to just ignore it because his name was coming up (cough cough) too often. As for form, well, maybe not quite yet....

April 2018

We returned to Boston just in time for the monthly board meeting. The board rates me as secure, they are happy with the number of young first team players I have signed but disappointed with the Dallas game. I actually looked forward to the post meeting dinner and had a very nice time. We let Michelle choose the restaurant and wound up at Steph’s. The fare was good, the company better and there was very little football talk.

The pregame buildup for the Fire game centered on the rivalry and how the manager's approach it. Jason didn’t even try to stir up any controversy. Is he feeling alright?

4/7/18 vs Chicago Fire - MLS G7 - 4231 Klewin Farrell O’Neill Baah Goncalves Herivaux Duylio Sonora Dae-Dong Rodriguez Agudelo. Chicago; 4222 2DMW. We completely dominated the game for the first half and Park always seemed to be on the ball. We started the second half with a 3-0 lead and gave one back and were one great save from giving a second one within 10 minutes. We immediately switched to the 4141 and struck for one more as Lee came off the bench for the complacent looking Sonora to score. Win 4-1.

New England Revolution (1-4-1) vs Chicago Fire (3-0-2)

4-1

20 Shots 5

10 On Target 2

6 Fouls 16

1 Yellow Cards 0

45% Possession 55%

Goals Rodriguez (5) Agudelo (7) Dae-Dong (32) Igboananike (50) Nguyen (60)

I told the press that we were just lucky to score so many goals in the early stages of the half, that this game could really spur the team on and confidence and focus were both high. Hugo said it might take a while to recover from this setback.

Next up a late midweek game on Thursday in the Bronx against MLS worst NYCFC then a quick turnaround for DC United at Rev stadium on Saturday.

It was another boring presser before the NYCFC game. I answered questions about our 5 game unbeaten run, rotating squads and my relationship with club president Brian Bilello.

I offered London Woodbury to MLS teams in trade as he isn’t getting any playing time but still has value. We will need the roster spot when AJ Soares comes back from injury. Nine teams offered trades including Portland FC Dallas and DC United, who all offered first round superdraft picks. Portland might make the best sense, they were 11th last year and sit 14th this, but I gambled that the Preki magic has worn off in DC, they currently sit 18th early in the season and this will take a pick from another eastern conference team as well as adding one to us. Of course that means DC will have London to use, so who knows if I’ve outsmarted myself. I only hope they use him at central defender, he might actually be able to help them at fullback.

4/12/18 at NYCFC - MLS G8 - 4231 Klewin Farrell Burton Baah Goncalves Herivaux Duylio Sonora Dae-Dong Meram Agudelo. NYCFC; 4231. And another very frustrating game as we started awful let NYCFC run away to a 2-0 lead and then fought back in the second half to make it 2-1. After the goal we had chance after chance that a desperate NYCFC team turned away for their first win of the season. There was plenty of blame to go around, Burton, Goncalves, Meram and Agudelo were all 6.2 or below. Loss 1-2.

New England Revolution (2-4-1) at NYCFC (0-3-3)

1-2

17 Shots 13

5 On Target 4

12 Fouls 2

0 Yellow Cards 0

48% Possession 52%

Goals Molino (1):Poku (30) Sonora (55)

The press asked if I underestimated NYCFC by resting a number of players and I said no I hadn’t, then they asked about Duylio, who was actually player of the match in a losing effort, I said he was fantastic.

We only had one day between games so I was right back in another pre match presser the next day which centered around London’s return to Rev Stadium and my war with Preki. Um… I wasn’t aware there was a war. It’s a good thing the media is here to tell me who I’m mad at.

4/14/18 vs DC United - MLS G9 - 4231 Klewin Tavernier Burton O’Neill Goncalves Jacobson Miller Nguyen Rodriguez Pratt Zuniga. DCU; 4123 DMW. Nothing good happened in this game, every single rev player played poorly and DCU had a walk in the park. That's another first win we’ve gifted to the opposition.

New England Revolution (2-4-2) at DC United (0-4-3)

0-2

12 Shots 13

6 On Target 3

13 Fouls 8

0 Yellow Cards 0

42% Possession 58%

Goals Teixeira (34,84)

Thankfully there wasn’t a post match press conference, I wasn’t in the mood. No more player rotation, if you haven’t earned a spot you don’t play. A while ago it was easy to be optimistic saying we had only lost one of seven. Now it's plain that we have only won 2 of 9.

We used the eight days between games to try to keep morale up and work on our game. Working on my game included some good heart to heart talks with Gianna about my attitude. She is a great help there. I used to think she was naive, but when it comes to interpersonal stuff it’s clear that I was the clueless one.

There was no pre match press conference before the OCSC game. I wouldn’t want to talk to me either.

4/22/18 vs Orlando City SC - MLS G10 - 4231 Klewin Farrell O’Neill Soares Baah Duylio Jacobson Nguyen Dae-Dong Rodriguez Agudelo. OCSC; 4231 I’ll try to focus on the positive here - we won. That’s it. We went with all of our best players and were being steamrolled until Alex Song got a red card after which we took over. Sort of. Win 2-1

New England Revolution (2-4-3) vs Orlando City SC (4-0-4)

2-1

15 Shots 9

7 On Target 3

5 Fouls 12

0 Yellow Cards 0

53% Possession 47%

Goals Agudelo (30) Nguyen (45+1) Lopez (83)

At the presser I commended Lee Nguyen for his player of the match performance in his 200th appearance for the club and admired Lopez’ fantastic goal against us.

Adrian Heath said that Song’s red card was harsh and that we always got breaks like that, to which I said he was just talking nonsense as usual. Adrian replied that I would be incandescent if it happened to me, and ask him what he thought of my reaction then.

My prize striker signing, Martin Zuniga has not been good. 3 games a 6.33 rating and he made a stink about playing time at which point he got put on the unwanted list. We immediately received two 1.9m offers from Mexican teams which Mike accepted. I could be embarrassed about the fact that I signed him in the first place, but I prefer to look at it as turning nothing into 1.9 million dollars. Of course the money won’t really do us much good. Because MLS.

The news reported we are only expecting 12,000 fans for the Philadelphia game, and we are 17th in the league in attendance this year. Not good.

I moved into my new townhouse on St. George St. on the off day after the OCSC game. Gia moved some things in as well and did most of the decor as she will be a part time resident as well. We have already found our favourite restaurants around the neighborhood. For my morning coffee and occasional brunch there’s Flour Bakery. Estragon Tappas Bar is already my regular watering hole and quick-bite-to-eat-stop where everyone knows my name. Blunch and Orinoco are nice lunch and dinner spots as well. This townhouse already feels more like a home than my condo in Foxboro ever did.

Shuttleworth asked to leave as he isn’t getting any playing time. I told him it made sense.

4/25/18 vs Philadelphia Union - MLS G11 - 4231 Klewin Farrell O’Neill Soares Baah Duylio Jacobson Nguyen Dae-Dong Rodriguez Agudelo. Philadelphia; 4231. At least we were the better team from start to finish. Once again we found a way not to win, as we wasted chance after chance and Philly launched one successful counter.

New England Revolution (3-4-3) vs Philadelphia (5-0-4)

1-1

12 Shots 6

5 On Target 4

13 Fouls 17

1 Yellow Cards 0

53% Possession 47%

Goals: Dae-Dong (8) Olivera (74)

Mike came to me with a proposed transfer acquisition of Finnish center back Joel Mero who has been on BMG II the last three years. I turned it down, he wasn’t high enough quality for us, which is probably progress - two years ago I would have been begging for him. The progress I am craving is in the team record though, and we are still waiting for that.

Gianna headed back to Foxboro to attend to her business as we will be heading on the road to face Toronto next. She will still only be a 45 minutes away, but I was sad to see her leave.

[edtheguy]

Author's note: I am running three saves, each is set up with a distinct story and personality to give different gameplay and I rotate through them a season at a time to keep from getting bored with any one save. I'm explaining this now just for context, as I have already mentioned one of my other managers in an earlier post, Peter's distant cousin, the young former player/manager from Northern Ireland Conall Madden, and in this post we will hear from the retired German national star Dieter Roemer. I run them as completely independent stories, but since I use different strategies with each, sometimes I learn something in one save and realize it would be a help in one of the others... or I think I do anyway... so I figured I might as well plug that into Peter's story when it happens.

May 2018

It was another uneventful Board Meeting. I’m still secure, they like our young squad and understand the fans dismay with the loss to DC. Gianna did drive back to have dinner with us, but she had to leave after so she could be in Foxboro for morning meetings. Thats an hour and a half in the car for dinner with me. She deserves credit for that. I told her she was crazy - but she knew what I meant.

On Thursday May 3rd Robert Kraft announced he would be retiring at the end of the season. I wonder just how big a deal that will be for us on the real football side of things. Will Jonathan stay on the board? Will we get a new boardmember, or a whole new board?

The Red Bulls are interested in O’Neill, I told the press he wasn’t going anywhere.

5/6/18 at Toronto FC - MLS G12 - 4231 Klewin Farrell O’Neill Soares Baah Duylio Jacobson Nguyen Dae-Dong Rodriguez Agudelo. Toronto; 4123 DMW. We had no chance, it wasn’t as close as the score. Loss 1-2

New England Revolution (3-5-3) vs Toronto FC (5-4-2)

1-2

10 Shots 19

4 On Target 7

15 Fouls 11

0 Yellow Cards 0

42% Possession 58%

Goals:Altidore (70,80) Dae-Dong (85)

I’ve got no ideas on what is going wrong, it’s time to watch some game film. The better I think we are the worse we do. I scheduled a video session with the coaches to review our least impressive games.

I made no comment to the press on anything.

And we get to play Greg Berhalter’s Crew next. The marketing office reported that a low turnout was expected for the game. I’m not that surprised, we aren’t doing much to attract the fans at the moment.

Since I was once again feeling like we weren’t getting the most from our tactical approach I called another friend I’ve met over the years named Dieter Roemer who is struggling himself with an underperforming Inter squad after resigning from Real Sociedad following a row with the board there earlier this year. Dieter has a lot of experience with both the 4231 he learned from Ottmar Hitzfield when he played for him at Bayern and the 4141 used by Joachim Low while he was a player on the German National team.

After the video session I went over some minor adjustments to our tactics with the staff based on Dieter’s recommendations.

I did not answer a single question at the press conference. One of the questions was about superman scoring in 7 straight games against us. Definitely no comment.

.

5/9/18 vs Columbus Crew - MLS G13 - 4231 Klewin Farrell O’Neill Soares Baah Duylio Jacobson Nguyen Dae-Dong Rodriguez Agudelo. Columbus;4231. This was a very strange game as we surged out to a 3-0 lead in the first half despite Columbus generating more shot attempts and chances. They missed the net 12 times. We’ll take the win but I wonder if it wasn’t just the odds catching up with them. Win 3-0

New England Revolution (3-5-4) vs Columbus Crew

3-0

19 Shots 17

9 On Target 1

5 Fouls 10

1 Yellow Cards 3

51% Possession 49%

Goals:Dae-Dong (28,38) Soares (37)

A.J. Soares scored his first goal since returning to the Rev’s and left the game with an injury. After the game Dr. Allen reported he would be out 5-6 weeks with a sprained ankle.

When asked about Columbus aggressive play in regards to AJ’s injury I said I was disgusted with Greg. I also admitted to being ecstatic to end Columbus string against us. Tit for Tat Greg.

Greg responded by saying, assertively, that the criticism of their playing style was starting to affect his players.

Sunderland Manager Neil Redfern called to discuss Roland Beyers loan agreement, I told him that Beyer hasn’t shown he’s good enough to play more and he would have to accept the time he;’s getting. Redfern said he had to accept my wishes to make the best decision for my team but hoped Beyer changed my mind.

In the press conference before the Red Bull game I said our confidence was high and we have a squad of players specifically to overcome things like AJ’s injury.

5/13/18 at New York Red Bull - MLS G14 - Cobra 4231 Klewin Farrell O’Neill Burton Baah Jacobson Duylio Nguyen Dae-Dong Meram Agudelo. Meram is in for a slumping Rodriuez. NYRB; 4231. And this was our second full professional two way game in a row. We had to pull Nguyen and Duliyo who just didn’t have it today to get our breakthrough, but we were always more in control of the game than the stats indicate. Win 2-0

New England Revolution (4-5-4) at New York Red Bull (9-1-3)

2-0

9 Shots 7

5 On Target 3

8 Fouls 15

1 Yellow Cards 3

53% Possession 47%

Goals:Agudelo (67) Dae-Dong (81)

And in our traditional dark cloud announcement, Juan Agudelo left the game after scoring our first goal with a back strain and will be out 4 weeks.

With Agudelo and Soares’ injuries we looked at loans and transfers and the possibility of recalling Alidin. In the end we didn't find anyone I was comfortable committing to without more scouting, so we decided to give opportunities to players that were already here. Rodriguez will get the first shot then Meram. I decided against recalling Alidin for just 3-4 weeks.

Park Dae-Dong and Juan Agudelo have been called up for the world cup 6/15/18-7/15/18, which will cost them at least 4 league and one cup game. Of course Juan’s injury will affect his participation

Bobby Shuttleworth was unhappy he wasn’t sold, I only offered him out once. When the press asked I said no comment.

Apparently the Seattle Coach, Pete Vagenas, is trying to rile me up. I told the press I hadn’t noticed. And refused to comment on their striker, who apparently also always scores against us. Vagenas said he hadn’t forgotten my criticism of him. That’s too bad, I have.

5/19/18 vs Seattle Sounders - MLS G15 - 4231 Klewin Farrell O’Neill Burton Baah Duylio Herivaux Nguyen Dae-Dong Beyer Rodriguez. Three changes, Herivaux at CM to rest Jacobson, Beyer back in at AML, and Rodriguez for the injured Agudelo. Seattle; 532 WB. And now it’s three from three. This was almost a replay of the last two games. Rodriguez is off the mark as Juan’s replacement, we didn’t let Seattle back into the game and kept another clean sheet and Lee added the knockout blow late. Win 2-0

New England Revolution (5-5-4) vs Seattle Sounders (5-4-5)

2-0

19 Shots 9

7 On Target 3

7 Fouls 6

1 Yellow Cards 3

64% Possession 36%

Goals:Rodriguez (36) Nguyen (89)

The press asked about our shutout streak and I answered that the whole defense works very hard (what do you want to bet we concede next game?) and how long our run could go on, I said for a while yet.

Stole Dimitrievski scouted out as an excellent keeper, but only slightly ahead of Klewin and I’m not going to use two international slots on the keeper position, so we will just keep him on the short list for now.

5/22/18 at Real Salt Lake - MLS G16 - 4231 Klewin Farrell O’Neill Burton Baah Jacobson Duylio Nguyen Dae-Dong Beyer Rodriguez. The only change is Jacobson back in for Herivaux. I thought about moving Baah back to CD and bringing Goncalves on for Burton, but with three straight clean sheets I decided to stick with the same d-line. RSL; 4123 DMW. And sure enough, we conceded, not just once but three times. In the last half hour. Up till that it was business as usual as we methodically built 2-0 and 3-1 leads. At least we got a point, but it’s definitely 2 lost. Draw 3-3.

New England Revolution (6-5-4) at Real Salt Lake (5-6-4)

3-3

17 Shots 8

6 On Target 6

16 Fouls 7

3 Yellow Cards 0

51% Possession 49%

Goals:Rodriguez (8,31) Silva (56) Nguyen (68) Bravo (77, 90+2)

I told the press that the team would learn to concentrate after throwing away a late lead like that, and that Shane O’Neill wasn’t going anywhere.

We now have 12 days off, while no one is on international duty, then will have games during the world cup. Thanks schedule makers.

An amateur team, the Seacoast United Phantoms beat the Rochester Rhinos in the US Cup second round, while Ocean City also advanced, beating Harrisburg City. We will play the winner of the third round match between Charleston and Pittsburgh in the fourth round.

Chris Kraft, who has only gotten in 3 games this year made the news for publicly criticising Philadelphia for not letting him leave.

We will face the Pittsburgh Riverhounds in the US Cup, the press is expecting a good turnout due to our good form, and they pointed out we have lost our last two meetings against the Riverhounds.

Gianna came to the city to spend a three day weekend with me while we are training between games and told me it was good to see how much better I handled the team's struggles this year. It’s much nicer to be around me now apparently. She did suggest I work on my media handling though, she feels it’s important to set a good example for the players. I couldn’t argue with that, I’ll add it to my list.

[mark wilson27]

Cant believe I haven't commented on this story yet. Loving the quick precise match reports, stats and some back story.

[edtheguy]

Cant believe I haven't commented on this story yet. Loving the quick precise match reports, stats and some back story.

Thank you for the kind words, comments are always appreciated but never required - besides you've got a couple things of your own going on around here...

Anyway, it is nice to have you on board, I hope you continue to enjoy!

June 2018

In news from England, Arsenal’s Jurgen Klopp, a former opponent of my friend Dieter in their playing days, won manager of the month. The EPL player of the month went to - Manchester United’s Harry Kane. Things have certainly changed over there since I had time to watch the league on TV before I got the job with the Rev's.

At the board meeting I was told that I was now very secure. They like the number of young players we’ve signed and are now disappointed with the departure of Dennis Flores. I asked for a report on Flores just to see, and found that he has been a free agent ever since we put him on waivers. Which is where he was before we signed him. Gianna got hung up in a meeting in the city and I third wheeled it with the Burns' for most of dinner at Orinoco before she made it. She has had several meetings in Boston lately but she won’t tell me what they are about. She only smiles when I ask her.

I offered Duylio a contract extension, told the press there was no way Shane O’Neill was leaving in response to more interest from the Red Bulls.

6/3/18 at Los Angeles Galaxy - MLS G17 - 4231 Klewin Farrell O’Neill Burton Baah Jacobson Duylio Nguyen Dae-Dong Beyer Rodriguez. No changes, thought about playing Goncalves and putting Tavernier in for Jacobson, but both of those substitutions had been made at 2-0 last game, after which we surrendered 3 goals, so.. no. LA; 4312 N. It’s a lot more fun to manage when we play well. We bounced back from the blip on Salt Lake by jumping to a 2-0 lead, and when LA got one back, instead of folding we added two more. Juan may have lost his job as Mario netted another brace. Beyer finally got off the mark for us and I even experimented by seeing the game out in the same tactic, just replacing Dae-Dong at AMC with Tavernier and moving him to DMC instead of using the 4141. Everything worked, Win. 4-1

New England Revolution (6-6-4) at Los Angeles Galaxy (6-5-5)

4-1

15 Shots 10

8 On Target 2

12 Fouls 12

3 Yellow Cards 0

58% Possession 42%

Goals:Rodriguez (27,29) Lletget (33) Beyer (44) Dae-Dong (52)

In the post match presser I said Beyers strike was indeed magnificent and had to answer rumors that are already circulating about Dae-Dong leaving. I said I was confident he would stay. Looking into it after the conference the only team currently interested in him is SLB, who he spurned to sign with us, and we signed him to a four year deal. So, so far so good.

Duylio signed a three year extension.

Gideon Baah will be out a month with a back strain. Juan Agudelo will be back for the Columbus game.

We are massive favorites for the Columbus game. We’ve beaten them exactly once in four years and they are still ahead of us in the standings so I don’t know where that comes from…

I didn’t comment when asked about my record against Greg in the press conference.

6/9/18 vs Columbus Crew - MLS G18 - 4231 Klewin Farrell Burton O’Neill Goncalves Jacobson Duylio Sonora Nguyen Agudelo Rodriguez. With Baah out Goncalves is in, With Dae-Dong on international duty Nguyen moves into his position and Sonora comes into the lineup and Agudelo is back and starting at AML, with Mario staying put. Columbus; 4231. We played a good first half but didn’t take our chances and had 3 of four defenders playing poorly. We played a bad second half and the Crew took their chances. Of course. Loss 1-3.

New England Revolution (7-6-4) vs Columbus Crew (8-3-7)

1-3

18 Shots 15

8 On Target 7

6 Fouls 7

1 Yellow Cards 2

49% Possession 51%

Goals: Mabwati (23) Sonora (28) Galvan (74) Kamara (80)

That wasn’t good. We can’t have injuries on defense. And we are gonna miss Park while he is at the World Cup.

I told the press we weren’t that bad and I wanted to move on, and refused to comment on Mabwati’s performance. After the game Juan left for the World Cup.

MLS got 33% of Zuniga’s transfer fee.

Garry Monk called to talk about Tavernier playing outside his preferred right back, and understood that at least he’s getting playing time.

6/17/18 at Toronto FC - MLS G19 - 4231 Klewin Farrell O’Neill Soares Tavernier Jacobson Duylio Nguyen Sonora Rodriguez Agudelo. Toronto; 4123 DMW. Going back to everyone's regular roles and plugging Joel Sonora in for Park worked well as we looked like us again. Professional and in control start to finish. Took AJ off for fitness and replaced Lee (who was not playing well) with Miller who moved to DM with Sonora going wide as we closed out with a4123 DMW. Win 3-0.

New England Revolution (7-6-5) at Toronto FC (9-6-3)

3-0

22 Shots 14

12 On Target 4

7 Fouls 13

0 Yellow Cards 0

53% Possession 47%

Goals:Beyer (44) Jacobson (52) Rodriguez (90)

In the press conference when asked what effect getting a goal just before half had on the game I replied sarcastically that it made my halftime talk easier and that resulted in the headline “Banalik: Beyer goal changed everything.” Comical.

Sonora Jacobson Beyer O’Neill and Farrell were all named in team of the week.

Darrius Barnes made the news for his return to Rev Stadium with Pittsburgh for our cup match.

Goncalves suffered a knee injury in training and will be out 4 weeks.

6/20/18 vs Pittsburgh Riverhounds - US Cup Fourth Round - 4231 Klewin Farrell O’Neill Soares Tavernier Jacobson Duylio Nguyen Sonora Beyer Rodriguez. Pittsburgh;442 DMD N. While we controlled the game thoroughly we saw many missed chances and great saves from the Pittsburgh keeper and only held a slim 1-0 lead in the second half when the Riverhounds got their break and tied the game on their first shot on target. Justin Meram came off the bench at 60 minutes for an uninspiring Mario Rodriguez and scored two for the win. 3-1

New England Revolution vs Pittsburgh Riverhounds - US Cup

3-1

17 Shots 11

11 On Target 1

10 Fouls 18

0 Yellow Cards 1

53% Possession 47%

Goals:O’Neill (23) Gomez (64) Meram (69,90)

Darrius Barnes came off the bench for Pittsburgh for the 11th time without a start. He is averaging a 6.56 match rating for them. There were two more upsets as The Austin Aztex upset FC Dallas and the Carolina RailHawks beat OCSC. The 9,487 fans in attendance for us was a record low.We will face NYCFC in the fifth round and then either the Richmond Kickers or Chicago Fire in the quarterfinal if we win.

6/23/18 at Orlando City Soccer Club - MLS G20 - 4231 Klewin Farrell O’Neill Soares Tavernier Duylio Herivaux Nguyen Sonora Beyer Rodriguez. With only Tavernier and Jacobson looking slightly tired, we will make one change, Herivaux in for Jacobson. With Goncalves and Baah injured our only other left back is Miller so Tavernier will stay in the lineup. OCSC;4231. We had the edge early and held on late, after falling behind at 48 minutes subbed out three underperforming players, Herivaux, Tavernier, and Sonora, after which Mario got his second goal for the draw. 2-2

New England Revolution (8-6-5) at Orlando City SC (8-3-7)

2-2

10 Shots 10

8 On Target 6

6 Fouls 14

0 Yellow Cards 0

50% Possession 50%

Goals:Rodriguez (9,59) Song (18) Rivas (49)

We were denied penalty shouts on tackles on Duylio and Nguyen in the game. At the press conference after, when I was asked about it I said the referees do a very difficult job to the best of their abilities. What was that about the shoe being on the other foot Adrian?

For once we haven’t played the most games in the MLS to this point. We currently sit 6th in the Shield standings with games in hand on every team ahead of us except Toronto.

The USA qualified for the second round of the World Cup by beating Cameroon. Juan has gotten into 4 games off the bench and has a goal assist and a 7.03 average rating, while playing injured. Park Dae-Dong has only gotten into one game off the bench for South Korea, who did not advance. Park is due back with us the day before the Columbus game, we will see what shape he is in.

In the press conference before the Columbus game I was told that Greg is hell bent for revenge after my unprofessional behaviour following our last game. I told them I didn’t pay attention to that sort of thing, we had a team to run here. I do actually remember saying something about being disgusted with him - that is probably the sort of thing I need to stop doing. Next they asked about Mabwati’s 10 goals in 11 games against us. No comment.

6/30/18 vs Columbus Crew - MLS G21 - 4231 Klewin Farrell O’Neill Soares Tavernier Duylio Herivaux Nguyen Dae-Dong Beyer Rodriguez. With Park back and fit his return is the only change to our starting eleven. Gideon Baah passed his physical for a maximum of 30 minutes so he will make the substitutes bench. Columbus 4231. This was a fairly tame game, as we didn’t generate a ton of chances, but we didn’t let Columbus do much of anything, and when they did Klewin made the saves. We took a 1-0 lead early in the 2nd half on a goal from Roland Beyer, then when Columbus keeper Joel Silva tried to spring a counter attack from outside the area it was intercepted by Andrew Jacobson who lofted it home from midfield for a win. 2-0.

New England Revolution (8-7-5) at Columbus Crew (9-4-8)

2-0

12 Shots 4

5 On Target 2

4 Fouls 11

0 Yellow Cards 0

53% Possession 47%

Goals:Beyer (51) Jacobson (83)

Mario Rodriguez left the game with an injured foot and will be out 2-3 weeks. That is unfortunate. Juan will only be out another two or three weeks tops and we only have one game over the next two weeks so it might not be that bad.

So for the second time I was faced with questions about Columbus aggressive style, I once again stated my disgust with them and with Greg. (though my disgust has nothing to do with aggressive play… I shouldn’t say things like that to the press though...I’ll try to do better next time)

The next day as I was trying to find a creative solution to our potential lack of strikers Dr. Allen came to my office to tell me Park Dae-Dong could use a week or two of rest after his recent schedule, more perfect timing, but I was kind of expecting that when he came back from the world cup anyway. I sent him on one week's leave. I am expecting to have to do the same with Juan when he returns. This is actually good timing, with the only game we have for the next two weeks being a US Cup match against NYCFC.

Roland Beyer won player of the month for his (first) three goals in four games. I congratulated him before practice and he said it was nice to see his hard work paying off.

Gianna will be staying in the townhouse for the next month or so and ‘working from home’. I told her it would be nice to have her around and asked if there was anything else she wanted to tell me, she just smiled sweetly, again, and said ‘not yet’.

[edtheguy]

July 2018

As we head into the second half of the year it is time to change from practice plan A - Tactical focus to Plan B - Ball Control

The knockout rounds of the world cup are underway and Holland and Ghana have already punched their tickets for the quarterfinals. The USA has their chance today against Croatia, while England plays Costa Rica.

The board now considers me untouchable, which almost made up for them making me go to a board meeting on sunday. They are pleased with our young first team players but disappointed with our efforts at playing possession soccer. Everyone was probably glad they didn’t have to listen to me whine at dinner for a change. The ladies actually consented to going to The Fours for dinner so we could catch Sunday’s late World Cup game. England had already won their match 1-0 on an 84th minute goal by Jack Grealish and the USA was up next.

At least the food and company were good. The USA on the other hand was not. It started with a Fabian Johnson own goal inside 5 minutes and Croatia added three more themselves, Juan came on at half for Jozy Altidore but there was no saving that game. Croatia is through to the quarterfinals with a 4-0 win. I wonder if Juan will make it home for the cup game Wednesday.

I offered contract extensions to Andrew Farrell (I never thought I’d be doing that my first couple years here), Kyle Miller, Andrew Jacobson (with reservations because of his age), and third string keeper Terry Tierney

Juan made it back to town on Monday, and looked none the worse for wear, so he’ll go into the lineup Wednesday. I might send him for a weeks leave after anyways, just to be safe, since we have the time off before our next game.

7/4/18 vs NYCFC - US Cup fifth round - Klewin Farrell O’Neill Soares Baah Jacobson Duylio Nguyen Herivaux Beyer Agudelo. Jeremy Herivaux gets the shot in Dae-Dong’s AMC slot. NYCFC;4231. Another very solid performance saw us walk away with a 3-1 win, but I did see some worrying signs. We gave up four absolute gold star chances, that Klewin made three great stops on, and for a game we had comprehensive control of we leaked way too many scoring chances. After going into the half up 3-1 I moved the midfield back so we were in a 4123 DM wide, and told the players to mix up their passing more but retain possession. Win 3-1.

New England Revolution vs NYCFC - US Cup Fifth Round

3-1

12 Shots 5

4 On Target 4

8 Fouls 14

0 Yellow Cards 0

56% Possession 44%

Goals:Soares (pen 8) Agudelo (16,37)

A.J. Soares scored his second goal from the spot, but this time he didn't get injured like when he scored his first. Juan celebrated his return with a brace.We will face Chicago in the Quarterfinal.

In other US Cup matches the Austin Aztex and New York Cosmos also advanced to the Quarterfinals beating the Colorado Rapids and DC United, respectively.

Tierney and Rodriguez signed their extensions.

The Board offered me a new contract, I requested we remove possession football from my evaluation and they agreed. Their initial offer was 500k, I countered at 550k and we settled on 538k for two years. I have a contract extension four months earlier than last year.

The next day I had to dismiss rumors that Shane O’Neill was going to Portland.

When the press called about my new contract I told them I was loving it here and the team had a bright future.

Kyle Miller and Andrew Jacobson signed their extensions.

Gary Monk again called to try to get me to start Tavernier at right back, but he said he understood when I told him I couldn’t.

We spent a late 4th back in Foxboro at Gianna’s ‘Summer Home’ a ridiculously expensive mansion that she’s being paid to ‘manage’ while the owners are in Europe. I had a wonderful time and we celebrated my new contract - and status with the board. She did make a comment about at least we had two more years that I didn’t know how to deal with.

Empoli made a bid for Agudelo, which Mike rejected.

In the quarterfinals of the World Cup England beat Holland 4-0, Croatia beat Ghana 3-0, France beat Austria 1-0 and Spain beat Portugal 4-0, so the Semi Finals are England v Spain and Croatia v France.

Donny van de Beek joined us when the transfer window opened on the 11th and the coaches liked him as much as the scouts did. He is a two way player who is already our best midfielder at 21 and has a very resolute personality. Skill wise he also has NO weaknesses. Just like Park though, the question is - can he put the final product on the field at game time?

Eskisehirspor made a bid for Agudelo that Mike rejected.

Galatasaray are chasing my old friend Diego Fagundez.

In the World Cup Semi Finals France beat Croatia 2-0. England valiantly held of a barrage of Spain attacks and in the 108th minute Danny Welbeck put them into the final with a goal and a 1-0 victory. Joe Hart was the player of the game.

Rodolfo Arruabarrena - Boca Juniors Coach - called to complain about Sonoras game time, I told him he wasn’t good enough to play more and Rodolfo said he was disappointed but understood.

The pre match presser before the Montreal game covered van de Beek not starting, Rev Stadium being a fortress and Farrell signing a new deal.

The England France World Cup Final kicks off at 3pm and our game is at 7pm.

Everything stopped as we watched England, playing a 4231 - 2DM wide, hold of an an attacking France team that played a 4123 DM wide. England striker Harry Kane made good on their only clear cut chance to grab a 1-0 victory and claim the 2018 World Cup in Zenit Arena St. Petersburg, Russia.

Engalnd vs France

World Cup Final

1-0

9 Shots 15

3 On Target 6

13 Fouls 9

3 Yellow Cards 3

44% Possession 56%

Goals: Kane (51)

The press was immediately reporting that all of England was hailing the great work of England head coach… Quique Flores….

7/15/18 vs Montreal Impact - MLS G22 - 4231 Klewin Farrell O’Neill Soares Baah Jacobson Duylio Nguyen Dae-Dong Meyer Agudelo. The best 11, except van de Beek on the bench to come on as a sub for his first game. Montreal; 4213. I have to say we are a pretty fun team to watch right now. Mike deserves DOF of the year for the Dae-Dong signing, the right players in the right positions and my job is a lot easier. We struggled to break through their defensive tactic, but got a 2 goal lead by half, brought Donny on for his debut and won easily. 4-1

New England Revolution (9-7-5) at Montreal Impact (6-9-9)

4-1

21 Shots 7

9 On Target 3

11 Fouls 14

1 Yellow Cards 3

57% Possession 43%

Goals:Dae-Dong (16,74) Agudelo (33) Salgado (83) O’Neill (90+3)

We now play Chicago in back to back games, first in Chicago for a MLS match then back at home four days later for the US Cup.

We have three weeks left in the transfer window, 2 roster spots open and two international slots open, 1.2m in trans- allocation - funds and 900k in board salary/ 1.05m in cap room. I’m not seeing any players to spend the transfer budget on, and even if we did they would probably need a DP slot. Right now my plan unless something better comes along is to recall Alidin from the Cosmos and sign the kid Roberto Noriega a definite 4 star possible 5 star prospect at CM from the academy for depth.

Spartak Moscow have bid 14.5m for former Rev Diego Fagundez.

We are losing 17yo Belgian striker Chris Gilstrap from our Academy team to Lokeren on a free. I actually had my eye on him. We need to keep a closer eye on any academy players that have other teams interested in them, by the time I found out about this the deal was done.

The first question at the pre match press conference was about us doing so well despite having one of the lowest average net transfer spnds. I told them you really couldn’t draw any conclusions from that. Then I agreed that Shane O’Neill was playing very well and deserved the adoration of the fans. We finished with the usual nonsense about rivalries.

Hugo and I have come a long way. He responded to my comment that I thought he was handling the pressure of the rivalry as well as me because he was a good coach by saying it really meant something coming from a coach he respected, and that I was one of the good guys in soccer. Drinks after the match.

7/21/18 at Chicago Fire - MLS G23 - 4231 Klewin Farrell O’Neill Soares Baah van de Beek Duylio Nguyen Dae-Dong Beyer Agudelo. van de Beek with his first start, playing as a DLP instead of Jacobson’s usual CMD. Chicago; 4222 2DMW. We dominated the game in every way except the score. We unleashed a barrage of attacks that all ended with either saves, woodwork, blocked shots, and, most often missed nets. Igboananike hit once on the counter and we lost. 0-1.

New England Revolution (10-7-5) at Chicago Fire (6-6-12)

0-1

17 Shots 7

7 On Target 3

11 Fouls 21

2 Yellow Cards 1

53% Possession %47

Goals:Igboananike (60)

I’m going to trust my eyes, which told me we played well and van de Beek as a DLP recycling possession worked, instead of the stats which say we lost and van de Beek was a 6.4. I’ll stick with it for one more game at least, and see if I’m right and this was just one of those fluky games.

After the game I told the press we didn’t play that badly, and that there was no bad blood between Hugo and I. Hugo said he was delighted with the win and that he wasn’t aware there was a war of words between us, and the press must think we are pretty thin skinned if they thought either of us were bothered by anything that was said.

Hugo and I did actually agree to get a drink, but not until after the cup game on Wednesday, we figured it would send the wrong message if we did it between games.

Diego Fagundez signed with Spartak Moscow for a transfer fee of 14.5m and a yearly wage of 5.6m. Good for him. Sadly the Metalist fans were happy to see him go ‘due to his inconsistent performances’. The good news for us is we get 1.1m up front and 675k over 12 months from this deal as a result of clauses in our sale of Diego. Also of note is the fact that this is the most Spartak Moscow has ever spent on a player.

7/25/18 vs Chicago Fire - US cup Quarterfinal - 4231 Klewin Farrell O’Neill Soares Baah van de Beek Duylio Nguyen Dae-Dong Beyer Agudelo. Chicago; 4222 2DMW. In this game we were nowhere near as impressive as the last time, but we got the win. We got an early lead when Roland Beyer clinically finished off the Fire after an error by their right back Connor Lade. Shortly after our goal Benji Joya was sent off for his second yellow and we tried to exploit the weakened Chicago lineup but they held strong the rest of the game as we didn’t generate a single highlight. But they didn’t generate a single shot. Win 1-0

New England Revolution vs Chicago Fire - US Cup Quarterfinal

1-0

17 Shots 3

6 On Target 1

13 Fouls 20

2 Yellow Cards 3

56% Possession %44

Goals:Beyer (18)

The post match press conference centered on Roland beyer’s ‘magnificent strike’ which I said is what he is capable of, our ‘good fortune’ to draw the New York Cosmos in the cup semifinal, which I said was disrespectful to them, Shane O’Neill transfer rumors, which I said wouldn’t happen and how I felt about beating our bitter rivals, I resisted the urge to say I was gutted and said I was ecstatic.

Hugo was rather pompous when we had our drinks, but he was complimentary and respectful as a colleague. I’ll never call him a friend, but at least we are now civil.

Andrew Farrell and Park Dae-Dong were selected to the MLS all star team that will be coached by my friend and Manager of the Red Bull Jesse Marsch against Stade de Reims.

7/28/18 vs NYCFC - MLS G24 - 4231 Klewin Farrell O’Neill Soares Baah van de Beek Duylio Sonora Dae-Dong Beyer Agudelo. The only change here is Sonora in for Nguyen, who hasn’t had a game off in a very long time - especially for someone with his fragility. I am a little concerned after the two Fire games though, so more rotation might be on the horizon. NYCFC; 4231. Well, our offense is definitely struggling at the moment, but since we have the most goals in MLS, I won’t complain too much. And our defense is picking up the slack - wow - and we are finding ways to win. AJ Soares found a hollywood pass over everyone that put too much pressure on Steve Cook who almost handled the ball outside the box, when he didn’t Juan Agudelo picked it up rounded Cook and walked the ball into the net for a win. 1-0

New England Revolution (10-7-6) vs NYCFC (6-11-6)

1-0

15 Shots 7

5 On Target 3

8 Fouls 5

0 Yellow Cards 1

54% Possession 46%

Goals:Agudelo (48)

Next up a still struggling DC United on next Saturday.

Gianna called as I was getting ready to leave the office gave me an address and told me to meet her there. I knew better than to ask questions and said I’d be right there.

Before I got out the door Justin Meram came to see me to ask for more playing time. I said OK. The thing is it won’t be long before Rodriguez, Burton, Tavernier, Pratt and Miller will all want more playing time too, and we haven’t seen the best results from squad rotation the last couple years.

After Justin left I called Gianna back and told her I was just leaving and went to the address she gave me to a third floor suite in a building on Stuart Street. When I got there she was waiting outside a very upscale real estate office with the keys in her hands.

Apparently she had been rather modest about how well her office in Foxboro was doing. Helped by her incredible personality and the support of the contacts the Kraft’s had in the business community she has made a tidy nest egg in a small amount of time. She used those profits to buy a very well to do business in Boston so she could operate in a bigger market near our - well currently my - new home. I congratulated her and we opened the bottle of champagne she had waiting in her new office to celebrate. After our private celebration we called the Burns and had them meet us at a neighborhood watering hole to do some public celebration.

Back at home in the wee hours of the morning Gia mentioned that she had sold her place in Foxboro and would be looking for one in the city. I said she should just live with me. She replied, quite firmly, that she wouldn’t live together full time with anyone unless she was married to them.

I think I have come a long way with this interpersonal relationship stuff, because I was ready for this. I actually got on my knees, took out a rather extravagant engagement ring that I had bought earlier in the month and told her we should definitely do something about that. Her reaction was very heartfelt.

[neilhoskins77]

Great stuff Ed. You've got a very nice looking team shaping up for the Revs now. I think there could be contender out of Boston in the next few seasons if you can keep this squad together. Good work.

[edtheguy]

Great stuff Ed. You've got a very nice looking team shaping up for the Revs now. I think there could be contender out of Boston in the next few seasons if you can keep this squad together. Good work.

Thank you Neil, it is a much better squad than we started with, but it hasn't been easy, all the extra roster rules do make life interesting. As far as keeping them together goes... we will have to see...

August 2018

Yes it was a good heartfelt, we now have a New Years wedding planned in Barbados.

At the Board Meeting I was informed that I was Untouchable, Park Dae-Dong was good and the 0-1 loss to DCU was bad. I was so tickled with being told I was untouchable that I let the masters of the obvious comments slide. At Worden Hall for dinner with the Burn’s afterwards we announced our engagement and gave them an early invitation. Needless to say Michelle was ecstatic and Mike was relieved.

Jesse Marsch’s all stars beat Stade de Reims 1-1 on penalties.

We had to give the news to my kids by video, as it was impossible to get everyone together on short notice, Kate and Andrew are enjoying a lot of attention for the quality of their conservatory and David is spending a lot of time in the asian countries recruiting and developing the school's esports program. David was typically clueless and taken completely by surprise, and just as predictably Kate's reply was ‘about time’.

Preki apparently dislikes me almost as much as Berhalter. No war of words though, all he said was he hoped London could take advantage of the moment to turn in a game winning performance. Woodbury has an average rating of 6.86 as their CD so far, about what he did for us.

8/4/18 at DC United - MLS G25 - 4231 Klewin Farrell O’Neill Soares Baah van de Beek Duylio Nguyen Meram Beyer Agudelo. Park has had three uninspiring games in a row and is behind the rest of the team in match fitness so here is Justin’s first shot, we can move into first place in the conference with a win. DCU; 4312N. DC’s narrow formation was very effective as while we dominated the game we couldn't get a single shot on goal, finally at 60 minutes I subbed Park and Mario in for Justin and Roland and moved Mario up top with Juan and Lee into the midfield with Donnie and Duylio and went narrow ourselves. The changes opened the game for us and we won. 1-0

New England Revolution (11-7-6) at DC United (5-10-7)

1-0

16 Shots 11

3 On Target 2

10 Fouls 8

0 Yellow Cards 1

57% Possession 43%

Goals:Agudelo (87)

Dr. Allen informed me that Mario Rodriguez twisted his knee in the game and will be out 2-3 weeks. With the frequency of our injuries I should just schedule a regular post game meeting with him.

The press was surprised that Preki admitted we deserved the win, I said I appreciated his honesty. Then they asked about our shutout streak. Crap, you mean the one that’s about to end now? No comment. I’m actually more concerned with our 3 goals scored in the last 4 games.

Next up Orlando City come to town on next Saturday.

Probably not going to recall Alidin, don’t need more playing time issues right now. Found a player who would be a nice understudy for Lee, Partizan winger Marko Golubovic who is affordable, but Joel Sonora would be an comparable understudy and he’s American, so maybe we should explore making his loan permanent.

Offered a reserve contract to Roberto Noriega, who has nothing left to prove at the Academy, 4 goals 18 assists this season.

Boca wants 8.5m for Joel, so I made the offer for Marko (675k)

Work on our training facilities was completed, they are now excellent. I went to the board with a request for more coaches, feeling I ought to keep them busy and push to advance the team, they initially refused but came around when I stressed how important it was.

Andrew Farrell and Shane O’Neill were named in the team of the week.

I offered a contract to unemployed German coach Benjamin Lauth, who is the most determined and adaptable person I have ever met, and is a near genius when it comes to attacking football.

Roberto Noriega signed, he is already good enough to be van de Beek’s backup, Jacobson will be Duylio’s.

Benjamin Laith agreed to terms and we immediately reassigned all coaches. Our staff is best in MLS in most areas, but really, I can still see a need to improve.

Golubovic wanted a designated player contract so the transfer was cancelled.

Uneventful press conference, covered Mario’s injury and Lee Palmer of the American Soccer Chronicle tried twice to get me to say I didn’t like Adrian Heath - Adrian and I don’t get along, but all I would say was that I didn’t know him well but respected him as a coach.

8/11/18 vs Orlando City SC - MLS G26 - 4231 Klewin Farrell O’Neill Soares Baah van de Beek Duylio Meram Dae-Dong Beyer Agudelo. OCSC; 4231. We came out and dominated the first half as both new players scored van de Beek getting his first and Park, well not his first. I gave a new style inspirational half time talk - and OCSC came out fired up for the second half. They scored early and we made some substitutions that helped but we were still hanging on for dear life. Finally a change to the 4141 killed the game off. Win 2-1

New England Revolution (12-7-6) vs Orlando City SC (10-6-8)

2-1

15 Shots 19

8 On Target 6

6 Fouls 8

1 Yellow Cards 2

52% Possession 48%

Goals: van de Beek (7) Dae-Dong (18) Ceren (54)

Our two new international players beat Adrian’s team today, so he can at least claim a victory in being right about international players. I’ll let him have that one, we’ll take the 3 points.

Andrew Farrell left the game early in the first half and the news from the medical staff in our regular post game meeting wasn’t great - sprained ankle ligaments out 4-5 weeks. Garry Monk’s man Tavernier will get a run now.

Next up the cup semifinal against the Cosmos on Wednesday.at James M. Shuart Stadium in Hempstead NY.

The press focused on Andrew Farrell’s absence and a possible appearance in the final. I told them we were focused on this game not the final and we had players that would be able to fill in for Andrew, but declined to say who.

8/15/18 at New York Cosmos - US Cup Semifinal - 4231 Klewin Tavernier O’Neill Soares Goncalves van de Beek Duylio Nguyen Dae-Dong Beyer Agudelo. New York; 4213 2DMW expected - see below. Our captain Jose Goncalves returned from the nether regions of the bench where he’s been since early in the season when the coaches noticed a significant dip in his abilities and I noticed a dip in his tendency to stop the opponents from scoring. He was not in for the injured Farrell though, but for Gideon Baah as Jose can’t play right back and we can’t field more than 5 internationals for a cup game. I stuck with my inspirational team talk focusing on each unit, Conall promises me it’s a good idea, so I won’t throw it away after one game. The Cosmos surprised our coaching staff by coming out in a 532 WB instead of the expected 4213 2DMW and it appeared to be a tactical masterstroke as they controlled the first half in possession shots and chances. We made it to half time scoreless and somehow a combination of an inspirational team talk, better players than we’ve had in the past and better coaching helped avoid another embarrassing defeat to a lower league team. After firing the players up we changed to our narrow 4312 to negate the Cosmos advantage in the midfield, put Meram in for Beyer so we could have two natural strikers on the pitch and went attacking. Meram scored twice and at 75 minutes we switched to the 4141 and saw the game out with ease. Win 2-0

New England Revolution at New York Cosmos

US Cup Semifinal

2-0

20 Shots 11

7 On Target 4

9 Fouls 12

1 Yellow Cards 3

55% Possession 45%

Goals: Meram (52,58)

For the second time in three years we will go to the US Cup final, last time we were embarrassed by Orlando. We will face Sporting Kansas City this year. The two years since I’ve been here that we haven’t been in the final the cup has been won by a lower league team.

I told the press we weren’t celebrating until we won the final and Meram did just what I was hoping he would when we put him in the game.

We now have nine days off before we play NYCFC in Yankee Stadium. That will give me a chance to go see Gia one last time in Foxboro where she is closing out her affairs and staying at the ‘Summer home’. It will give us both a chance to say a final farewell to Foxboro, as Gia has finalized the sale of my old condo as well.

Fiorentina made a bid for Shane O’Neill that was dangerously close to his 3m free release clause, it met a 2.1m asking price that had been set at some point so Mike accepted, I had to override and reject the offer. I removed the asking price, but it might just be a matter of time.

Even after the ten day layoff we come into the NYCFC game in first place overall with eight games to go. No teams have any games to make up either, but there are 4 teams within 2 points of us. Still it is by far the best position we have been in after 26 games during my tenure.

8/25/18 at NYCFC - MLS G27 - 4231 Klewin Tavernier O’Neill Soares Baah van de Beek Duylio Nguyen Dae-Dong Rodriguez Meram.NYCFC; 4231 This game sees the return of Mario Rodriguez, in for the steadily declining Roland Beyer, and Juan Agudelo starting the game on the bench in favor of Justin Meram, just for Meram’s playing time and rotation. We came out smoothly and grabbed a 1-0 lead on a nice team play that started with Mario, went to Justin, and finished with Park. A few minutes later Meram was on the spot with a chance to make it 2-0 but he missed and struggled the rest of the game until leaving for Andrew Jacobson to play the wing as we switched to the 4141 to close the game out after Lee Nguyen scored a monster volley from range. Win 2-0.

New England Revolution (13-7-6) at NYCFC (7-11-8)

2-0

17 Shots 9

10 On Target 3

4 Fouls 3

1 Yellow Cards 0

53% Possession 47%

Goals: Dae-Dong (8) Nguyen (74)

We now have a three week layoff before we play the Red Bull at home on September 15th.

Baah, O’Neill and Nguyen were all named to the team of the week.

Benjamin Lauth started a course for his continental pro license.

We had four players called up for international duty during our two week break: Marcus Tavernier, Justin Meram, Park Dae-Dong, and Donny van de Beek. We got lucky this year to have these weeks off - not everyone in the league does.

[edtheguy]

August

Board Meeting #untouchable They like Dae-Dong, don’t like losing to Chicago. Off to another happy dinner with Mike and Michelle

I had another conversation with Garry Monk about Tavernier, nothing has changed, so the conversation didn’t either.

In practice during the week Lee Nguyen tore a stomach muscle in training, will be out 3-4 weeks.

The pre match presser centered around our good form and my ‘feud with Jesse Marsch.’ Jesse and I get on fine, there is not, nor has there ever been a feud.

9/15/18 vs New York Red Bull - MLS G28 - 4231 Klewin Tavernier O’Neill Soares Baah van de Beek Duylio Meram Dae-Dong Rodriguez Agudelo. Andrew Farrell is back in full training and on the bench as is Roberto Noriega. New York; 4231. This was a collective failure. our entire midfield, no the entire team, played a poor game and we fell behind 1-0. We changed to the 4312 and Juan got taken down in the box for a penalty that Justin meram took and we stumbled through the rest of the game for a pathetic draw. At least we are finding a way to take points when we play poorly, instead of lose games we play well. 1-1

New England Revolution (14-7-6) at New York Red Bull (13-8-7)

1-1

12 Shots 8

3 On Target 4

4 Fouls 8

0 Yellow Cards 0

50% Possession 50%

Goals: Velasquez (3) Meram (pen 29)

Next up Philadelphia comes to Boston on next saturday.

The one bright spot in our dismal game, Gideon Baah, was named in the team of the week.

A.J. Soares stubbed his toe in practice and will miss the Philadelphia game.

9/22/18 vs Philadelphia Union - MLS G29 - 4231 Klewin Farrell O’Neill Burton Baah van de Beek Duylio Sonora Dae-Dong Beyer Agudelo. Philadelphia;4231. Philly ran circles around us at the start and scored a nice team goal at 5 minutes, but we pegged them right back on a nice individual play by Roland Beyer, who nutmegged one of the Philly defenders and shot the ball through the keepers hands. Then we took control of the match and wasted chance after chance, it was starting to feel rather ominous, until Shane O’Neill headed in a goal from a corner kick. Changed to 4141 at 75 minutes to see the game out. Win 2-1

New England Revolution (14-8-6) vs Philadelphia Union (10-8-10)

2-1

16 Shots 13

7 On Target 5

11 Fouls 11

0 Yellow Cards 0

52% Possession 48%

Goals: Olivera (6) Beyer (8) O’Neill (54)

We now have a 5 point lead in the Eastern Conference with 5 games to go. Our closest threat in the Shield Standings is Sporting KC, who are only 1 point behind us and are our opponent in the cup final.

Next Saturday we travel to Montreal to play the Impact. after which we have a midweek cup final in Revolution Stadium against Sporting Kansas City. Just like two years ago when we played Orlando City the Cup Final results in back to back games against the same team as we will travel to KC on the following saturday.

Offered pre contracts to Academy players Boston born right midfielder Jesus Castro and Foxboro native central defender Bill Cahen. We will need an American replacement for Jose Goncalves, whose contract I will not be renewing and we need to find a long term replacement for Lee and these happen to both be 5 star prospects as well as our most developed academy players.

It hit the news that a consortium of local businessmen, possibly led by a former player will be approaching the soon to retire Robert Kraft with a takeover bid.

At Gia’s office for an early dinner while she waited for an evening appointment to show a multi million dollar business listing we discussed the news. It was all making sense, the board had seemed to not care at all, but they were probably just ‘playing out the string’, as they say, until Robert Kraft’s retirement. Building a new stadium makes even more sense now as it would be both Mr. Kraft’s legacy to the franchise, and a means to raise the selling price and maximise profit. Gia also pointed out that from a business standpoint it was a really good time for us to be playing well too. I replied that playing well didn't hurt my job security either.

Cahen and Castro both signed their contracts and they will officially join the senior squad onDecember 10th.

Martin Nash, one of our better coaches, is struggling to get his Continental Pro license. Montreal having a hard time selling tickets.

9/29/15 at Montreal Impact - MLS G30 - 4231 Klewin Farrell O’Neill Soares Baah van de Beek Duylio Sonora Dae-Dong Beyer Agudelo. Soares back form his toe injury, no other changes. Montreal; 4231. The players looked uninspired in the pregame talk, played uninspired on the field fell behind 1-0 and didn’t care, were unimpressed in the halftime talk and only marginally better when the worst offenders were subbed out. It was a disappointing and pathetic performance and they were told so after the game. Loss 1-2

New England Revolution (15-8-6) at Montreal Impact (7-11-12)

1-2

14 Shots 11

3 On Target 5

9 Fouls 5

0 Yellow Cards 0

41% Possession 59%

Goals: Bienvenu (15,70) Beyer (58)

Sporting KC played a solid game against next to last DC United and won 2-0, passing us in the shield table.

I held a team meeting to tell the players we have been doing well, but it was time to kick it up a notch. The players seemed fired up. I didn’t even have to have someone tell me it was a good idea to hold a team meeting, I thought of it on my own.

[edtheguy]

October 2018

Summary of October Board Meeting; I am untouchable. Park Dae-Dong is good, losing to the Impact is bad. None of that came up at dinner with the Burns though as we spent the evening discussing the likelihood of a new board and our wedding plans.

We are expecting our first sellout for the cup final against KC. Hopefully it goes better than our last final, or playoff game. We have come a long way since then so I am hopeful.

10/3/18 vs Sporting Kansas City - US Cup Final - 4231 Klewin Farrell O’Neill Soares Baah van de Beek Duylio Nguyen Dae-Dong Beyer Agudelo. Lee goes straight back into the lineup despite his injury history, he is actually nearly fully fit and his ‘sharpness’ doesn’t look too bad. KC;4123 DMW. We had the slight edge in a nervy first half in which both teams were feeling the game out as we saw just a little more of the ball and got slightly better shots off. Told the players at half that they would be in top shape with just one goal fired each group up and sent them out for the second half. We were even more on the front foot at the beginning of the second half and finally at 57 minutes a nice move that started by breaking up a KC play in their own end resulted in a dangerous cross by Lee Nguyen that Park Dae-Dong headed on to Juan Agudelo, whose shot was blocked but fell right into the path of Roland Beyer who put it home for a 1-0 lead. After the goal we remained in complete control until the last 20 minutes when KC started throwing everything at us, at which point we switched to the 4141 and saw the game out for the Rev’s first US Cup win since 2007. Win 1-0

New England Revolution vs Sporting Kansas City

US Cup Final - Revolution Stadium, Boston, MA

1-0

14 Shots 16

7 On Target 6

4 Fouls 12

0 Yellow Cards 1

53% Possession 47%

Goals: Beyer (57)

Immediately after the victory was a kind of crazy time. Among other things, the supporters group commented that having someone like me in charge was a source of great pride for the fans. Clint Dempsey called to congratulate me. We were notified that we qualified for the NACL. My phone went berserk. You get the idea.

Now we get KC again on saturday in a match that has big implications on the Shield standings.

Herivaux and van de Beek called up for international duty.

Pete Vermes was very complimentary about me when asked about our cup win before saturday's game. Which was very considerate since the win was against them. I returned the compliment, pointing out that he has his team playing very well and we would have to be on our game saturday. When I said that the press told me I sounded worried and I told them to stop putting words in my mouth. Pete replied that he would prefer the focus be on his players.

10/6/18 at Sporting Kansas City - MLS G31 - 4231 Klewin, Tavernier, O’Neill, Soares, van de Beek Duylio Nguyen Meram Beyer Agudelo. With Farrell and Dae-Dong still tired from wednesday, Tavernier and Meram come into the lineup. KC; 4123. We came into the game needing at least a draw to keep our supporters shield hopes alive and thoroughly embarrassed ourselves. We capitulated early and often, gave no resistance and let KC stroll around their park all night. I could have used 11 subs in this one. Loss 0-3.

New England Revolution (15-8-7) at Sporting Kansas City (16-7-7)

0-3

4 Shots 10

3 On Target 7

7 Fouls 19

3 Yellow Cards 5

49% Possession 51%

Goals: Valencia (18,37) Espinoza (71)

Pete was still complimentary of us after the match, I said he was a class act, that our performance was unacceptable, and it was through hard work that Juan will end his goal drought. The loss is crippling in the shield standings, with time running out in the season it will take something special to catch KC now.

Next up the Houston Dynamo at home on next saturday.

DC United fired last years wonder coach, Preki. They had a bad year this year with a record of 6-15-10 so far, but his two year record still isn’t terrible at 28-31-17.

Andrew Farrell made the shortlist for defender of the year, an award he won last season, yes he is still a better wingback than central defender.

I congratulated Zachary on his first international cap (for Haiti) and he said he couldn’t believe it took so long and don’t patronize him. Huh, his personality just keeps getting more and more interesting.

10/13/18 vs Houston Dynamo - MLS G32 - 4231 Klewin, Farrell, Soares, Burton, Baah, Noriega, Duylio, Sonora, Nguyen, Beyer, Agudelo. Many changes with Dae-Dong, van de Beek, O’Neill, Meram and Herivaux all on international duty. Houston; 442. We did what we needed to in this game, though for much of the game it looked doubtful as we couldn’t figure out what to do when given a scoring chance, fortunately Houston was willing to stand around and watch us until we did figure it out. It was Juan that finally did, and ended his 9 game goalless drought in the process. Once we had the lead we switched to the 4141 and immediately struck on the counter. Noriega was impressive in his first start, with a 7.5 rating and an assist. Win 2-0.

New England Revolution (15-8-8) vs Houston Dynamo (9-7-15)

2-0

24 Shots 7

10 On Target 0

12 Fouls 3

0 Yellow Cards 0

54% Possession 46%

Goals: Agudelo (81) Nguyen (83)

The press was, of course, very interested in Juan ending his goal drought and us extending what is apparently a streak against the Dynamo. They also asked what I thought about Andrew’s chances to win defender of the year and I said he deserves to win it.

Next up, Toronto at home next saturday. With the assist on Juan's goal Lee broke the team record for assists with 12.

Nguyen and Dae-Dong are both on shortlist for the Landon Donovan MVP award that was released by MLS this week.

10/21/18 vs Toronto FC - MLS G33 - 4231 Klewin, Farrell, O’Neill, Soares, Baah, Duylio, Jacobson, Nguyen, Dae-Dong, Pratt, Agudelo. van de Beek has a head contusion and isn’t fit so old hand Jacobson is in and Pratt, who I want to develop, came asking for playing time. Toronto;4123 DMW. We played a good first half dominating the game and creating multiple scoring chances but only capitalized once. The most notable missed opportunity was when a Juan Agudelo shot rebounded off the left post and fell right at Lee Nguyen’s feet only for him hit the right post. The second half, on the other hand was pitiful. It was a complete and total Toronto Onslaught that we were, apparently, unable to resist. Loss 1-2.

New England Revolution (16-8-8) vs Toronto FC (15-10-7)

1-2

13 Shots 14

4 On Target 7

12 Fouls 7

48% Possession 52%

Goals: Nguyen (20) Altidore (53) Giovinco (pen 66)

Needless to say I wasn’t happy with the game and let the players know afterwards. The press was interested in the referee's decision to award the penalty to Giovinco (which was correct) and I told them that the referees do a hard job to the best of their abilities.

My old rival Hugo Sanchez has left the Fire to take the vacant head coach's position at DC United. Very Interesting.

The loss drops us behind Toronto in the conference, but we have already clinched a spot in the playoff semifinals, and Sporting KC has run away with the Shield standings with an 8 point lead over Toronto now, so that isn’t really the end of the world.

Next we close the regular season against Philadelphia on saturday the 27th.

10/27/18 at Philadelphia Union - MLS G34 - 4231 Klewin, Farrell, O’Neill, Burton, Baah, Noriega, van de Beek, Nguyen, Dae-Dong, Pratt, Agudelo. Burton, Noriega and Pratt, all hopes of the future will play. Philadelphia;4231. The only hope of the future to play well was Burton. Pratt was awful and Noriega inconsistent. We didn’t exactly get outplayed, but we were never really a danger. We fell behind in the first half, changed to the 4141 at half and tied briefly before letting the only player on the pitch who looked like he wanted to play, Philly’s Teixeira, score his second to send us home. Loss 1-2.

New England Revolution (15-8-9) vs Philadelphia Union (13-8-12)

1-2

12 Shots 9

5 On Target 5

15 Fouls 7

46% Possession 54%

Goals: Teixeira (13,64) Agudelo (48)

A very disappointing way to end the season.Since our cup win we are 1-0-3. Now we wait for wednesday nights wild card games to see who we play in the conference semifinals.

NYCFC have fired another manager, this time it’s Tyrone Marshall getting the axe. Since June of last year their managers have been Jason Kreis, Mike Matkovic, Jurgen Klinsmann, and Marshall.

Orlando City cruised past Columbus 3-0 and the New York Red Bull beat Philadelphia on penalties p2-2 .

We will face Adrian Heath’s Orlando City in the Conference semi finals over the next two weekends. Game one will be in Orlando saturday.

For what was going to be a simple affair our wedding is getting overwhelming, Gia’s rather large family all want to be involved and now there seem to be a lot of moving parts. I am just trying to go with the flow, and so far so good.

[edtheguy]

November 2018

Marcus Tavernier injured himself in the weight room, will miss both legs of the semifinal.

Zachary Herivaux was called up by Haiti for games running from the 9th through the 20th, I didn’t talk to him this time.

11/3/18 at Orlando City SC - Eastern Conference Semifinal leg 1 - 4231 Klewin, Farrell, O’Neill, Soares. Baah, van de Beek, Duylio, Nguyen, Dae-Dong, Beyer, Agudelo. The usual gang, who hasn’t done much for a while- they’re due. Orlando; 4231. We couldn’t get any traction in the first half and switched to the 4141 to see if it could help, but when it didn’t we went back to our 4231 and OCSC finally capitalized on one of their chances to take a 1-0 lead into the half. When I told the team their play needed to improve in the second half Donny van de Beek got an attitude and was replaced by Andrew Jacobson. We weren’t really doing any better in the second half and I was debating on pulling an underperforming Park Dae-Dong when he fought through a crowd on a corner kick and drove home a loose ball to tie the game. We changed to the 4141 then for good and a few minutes later Park made a nice pass to Justin Meram who was having a nice game since coming on for a mildly injured Agudelo and he lobbed the keeper for a 2-1 lead. After that goal I did pull Park and put in the more defensive Kyle Miller and we managed to see the game out with Dae-Dong, van de Beek and Agudelo all subbed out. Win 2-1.

New England Revolution at Orlando City SC

MLS Eastern Conference Semifinal Leg 1

2-1

10 Shots 16

4 On Target 6

7 Fouls 8

43% Possession 57%

Goals: Larin (34) Dae-Dong (57) Meram (67)

So we will take a one goal lead and two away goals back home for leg two. It would be nice if we started playing well again though. Justin Meram, who was in for an injured Juan Agudelo, played through a neck injury at the end of the game and will now be out 8-10 days.

Toronto FC absolutely shellacked the Red Bull in their first leg, winning 6-2 in New Jersey.

Chicago has hired Vancouver scout and former Fire player and coach Jay DeMerit to be Hugo’s replacement. Looks like the Fire will be playing a defensive and cautious 4-4-2 now.

Park Dae-Dong, Donny van de Beek and Shane O’Neill called up for International Duty from the 14th-20th.

We are expecting a sellout for the home game.

11/10/18 vs Orlando City SC - MLS Eastern Conference Semifinal Leg two - 4231 Klewin, Farrell, O’Neill, Soares, Baah, van de Beek, Duylio, Nguyen, Dae-Dong, Beyer, Agudelo. Same, same - debated going with the 4141 from the start, but since we haven’t started a game with it in the last 50 matches, now isn’t the time. OCSC; 4231. Off the opening kickoff we worked a nice passing sequence to send Andrew Farrell down the wing to the byline where he picked out Park on a beautiful cross and put us up on 22 seconds. Off the restart OCSC striker Cyle Larin found himself on a through ball and slotted it home to tie inside a minute - but the flag was up and our lead was intact. After that we took control of the half and went to the locker room up 1-0. We showed no signs of letting up in the second half and at 60 minutes went to the 4141 to see out our two goal lead in the tie. Within 5 minutes of the change Lee Nguyen scored his first of two and we were on our way. Higuita scored a irrelevant goal late, but our job was already done. Win 3-1 (5-2).

New England Revolution (2) vs Orlando City SC (1)

MLS Eastern Conference Semifinal Leg 2

3-1 (5-2)

16 Shots 9

5 On Target 3

8 Fouls 5

51% Possession 49%

Goals: Dae-Dong (1) Nguyen (65,76) Higuita (70)

And we will face Toronto in the Conference Final in 2 weeks with the first leg at Revolution Stadium.

Lee Nguyen finished third in player of the year behind Altidore and Fulham's Emerson Hyndman. Alex Song won newcomer of the year.

NYCFC hires Preki as their new head coach.

On friday the 23rd Robert Kraft stopped by my office to tell me that the deal with the consortium that had been trying to purchase the team has fallen through and the transfer embargo that we were under has been lifted.

We are expecting a sellout for the Toronto Game, which will be after a rare international break - MLS only seems to care about international callups in the ‘playoffs’.

Rumors are already circulating about another consortium interested in purchasing the team, change is definitely coming- it’s just a matter of when.

11/24/18 vs Toronto FC - MLS Eastern Conference Final Leg One - 4231 Klewin, Farrell, O’Neill, Soares, Baah, van de Beek, Duylio, Nguyen, Dae-Dong, Beyer, Agudelo. The usual suspects. Toronto; 4123, both Michael Bradley and Jozy Altidore are out with injury. The team played a very good game remained in control and scored in each half. The second half goal came after we pulled an underperforming Agudelo and his replacement Mario Rodriguez picked out Roland Beyer on a great pass. I failed to remove a complacent looking Lee Nguyen in time however and he turned the ball over late to give Toronto an away goal. Win 2-1.

New England Revolution vs Toronto FC

MLS Eastern Conference Final Leg One

2-1

14 Shots 5

6 On Target 2

3 Fouls 16

54% Possession 46%

Goals: Duylio (5) Beyer (66) Giovinco (80)

Roland Beyer is in the news as a candidate for USA young player of the year.

The American Soccer Messenger wrote a story stating amazement that there wasn’t more interest in Andrew Farrell considering his low free release clause. Incidentally his ‘stats’ for my four years are

Year Pos GP G A POM AV R

2015 (CD) 31 0 0 0 6.95

2016 (CD) 28 1 0 0 6.77

2017 (RD) 20 2 7 3 7.44

2018 (RD) 33 0 7 2 7.36

He seems a little better at right back, and at 26 he should be good for a while. Since news stories like that are usually pretty good warnings, I offered him a new contract with a free release of 5m instead of 2.5.

I scheduled a meeting with the board, while I still have this very agreeable one, as much to get a break from the chaotic nuptial planning at home as to make a request. I did want to take the opportunity to improve our player development system while we still had the chance though. And as I expected the board agreed to increase our junior scouting budget without hesitation.

It does feel a little odd right now, we are having some actual success on the pitch and in a little over a month we will be preparing for next season and I will be on my second marriage. I can’t really wrap my head around everything at the moment, but it’s best just to keep going and focus on the next task at hand, which right now is the second leg of the Eastern Conference Final.

[edtheguy]

December 2018

12/1/18 at Toronto FC - MLS Eastern Conference Final Leg Two - 4231 Klewin, Farrell, O’Neill, Soares, Baah, van de Beek, Duylio, Nguyen, Dae-Dong, Beyer, Agudelo. The usual suspects. Toronto; 4123, Jozy Altidore is still out with injury, Michael Bradley is being rushed back. We got an early advantage to even up the away goals on a Toronto own goal off a set piece, but at 17 minutes Michael Bradley equalized. Juan Agudelo gave us a two goal cushion in the tie with a goal at 22 minutes and we went into the 4141. No one on the team could play a lick of defense however and by the half we were back in the 4231, Toronto was ahead 3-2 in the game and we were hanging on by away goals in the tie. The second half was hopeless for us as we didn’t manage a single attempt on goal despite trying several tactical changes and using all of our subs for underperforming players (we needed 8 more subs) and on 80 minutes Bradley struck for the second time in the game, Toronto was off to the MLS cup final and our season was over. Loss 2-4 (4-5)

New England Revolution at Toronto FC

MLS Eastern Conference Final Leg Two

2-4 (4-5)

5 Shots 12

4 On Target 6

3 Fouls 14

44% Possession 56%

Goals: McCarty (og 3) Bradley (17,80) Agudelo (22) Giovinco (29,45)

Players were uniformly against the goal of winning MLS cup next year. Nuts.

In the End of Season Board review I was very secure. They were very happy with Shield standings, Dae-Dong signing and Duylio performances and had no negatives.

Tom and I got together in my office for a post season fitness review and he reported that Shane O’Neill was still impressing in training, AJ on the other hand might just be showing signs of age.

The finance offices yearly summary reported that we avoided a tax hit as we had no taxable profit. That might not be good. It’s odd that their report almost made it sound like it was though...

Andrew Farrell agreed to a new three year extension and cited his passion for the club

After the weeks work the coaching staff came into my office, led by Tom. They told me to come with them and loaded me in a limo. When I asked where we were going Tom told me they had decided it was time for my bachelor party. I tried to protest - I told them it wasn’t like I hadn’t been married once already but they would have none of it. They even headed off my protests about fraternizing outside work or offending Gianna by telling me the whole thing had already been approved by both Gianna and Mike. In that order. I think most of them think Gianna is their real boss anyway. So, utterly defeated, I had no choice but to go with the flow.

Just in case I didn’t believe Tom, Gia had sent me a touching video message that I watched in the limo to some hoots and hollers as we rode to Logan International Airport where charter plain waited to take us to Las Vegas, of all places, where we seemingly had an entire floor of the Cosmopolitan. Tom introduced us to the head of our private security team who confiscated everyone's cellphones and electronic devices and the rest, wll what happens at the bachelor party stays at the bachelor party…..

It went well, considering all the potential pitfalls and when we inevitably, and regrettably, had to return to work the whole staff was alive, unincarcerated, and still on speaking terms. Well, mostly, Hong Myung Bo managed to irritate almost everyone at one point or another. When Mike, who hadn’t been cleared to participate by Michelle, heard about that he just chuckled and said, 'yeah he can get a little weird at times'.

There were several news items waiting when I finally dragged myself back into my office, after taking some fairly healthy ribbing from the players and office staff that didn’t go on the trip.

We were awarded 100k in allocation funds for qualifying for the North American Champions League.

There were more reports of SLB interest in Dae-Dong, who said he was flattered but just looking to see out his contract

Academy grads and new signings Castro and Cahen showed up, coaches liked each slightly less than our scouts had.

NYCFC offered a SECOND round pick for Nguyen and Shuttleworth….sure, of course I'll take half of something I don't want for two things I do, why do you ask? The trade offer was declined.

The detailed summary from the auditors showed that the club lost 2.9m 13% of turnover) for the year, the board announced their hope for increased attendance in the coming year. Our attendance was 16th in the league with an average of 16,589, which is 87% of capacity for the season.

Toronto FC expressed interest in Baah. I politely declined.

We did officially extended Sonoras loan for another year.

But the most significant news item was a report that a Springfield MA based consortium led by Gary Locklear is attempting a takeover and we are now under a transfer ban. During the transfer window. I am already not impressed with Mr. Locklear. I didn’t bother reading the rest of the story, there isn’t anything I can do about it.

Less than a day after welcoming me home Gia was accompanying me to the annual MLS awards banquet in New York.

MLS Awards:

Sporting KC striker Jose Valencia won the Landon Donovan MVP award, Lee Nguyen finished 5th. Valencia also won the golden boot with 26 goals. Our top scorer was Park Dae-Dong with 14.

Andrew Farrell won MLS defender of the year for the second year in a row, the young man was tickled pink and smiling ear to ear it was nice to see.

Pete Vermes of Sporting KC won coach of the year, I finished second.

Nguyen and Dae-Dong were named in the MLS best 11. But not Andrew Farrell.

Back in the office there was another week of mundane offseason matters:

Tavernier and Beyer’s loan deals are due to end soon. We declined to extend Tavernier’s as Swansea wanted us to pay his full salary, and Sunderland won’t loan Beyer again as they plan on using him on the first team.

Duylio signed a three year contract extension and cited his admiration for me. The media immediately questioned his 7.09m free release and I cited team policy not to comment.

Mike and Tom found no one at the re-entry drafts

Shane O’Neill signed a three year extension with a 6m free release clause, once again I cited team policy in not commenting.

Chicago and Houston are both interested in trading for former academy midfielder Jake Black. Since I don’t care about draft picks we’ll wait and see how the young man develops.

Apparently I should have read the full article on the Locklear takeover bid. When I got home Gianna was in a foul mood. When I asked what was wrong she was surprised I didn’t already know and eventually threw a copy of the story at me. She told me to look at the second page and as I was frantically trying to speed read the article she jabbed her finger at a candid photo of Gary Locklear and his wife. Francesca.

Or as I know her, Frannie.

[edtheguy]

December/January 2018-2019

Now we were off to our wedding and Gianna was unhappy, I was starting to feel like John McClane and wondering why does disaster always strike around Christmas?

Despite my worst fears the wedding and honeymoon were magical. We had a crowd of around 20 people there for the weekend leading up to the wedding, and the Resort kept everyone entertained with activities during the day and spectacular dinners in the evening. Mike and Michelle, Kate and Andrew, David and his date Autumn, and all of Gia's closest family had a wonderful time and were all smiles throughout. All in all it was a hundred percent better than our Italian vacation disaster.

Gia was relaxed and smiling and looked genuinely happy the whole time, when I asked her about the incident before we left she told me that she was past it, she realized we both had a past and that sometimes those pasts were going to come up in our present but that doesn’t change the way we feel about each other now. How did I ever find such a wonderful, grounded woman? Maybe the Locklear takeover won’t be such a personal disaster for me after all.

The wedding was in a beautiful ‘town square’ type location with wooden pagodas and terraces and lots of green and flowers. It was a very happy occasion and everyone seemed to thoroughly enjoy the poolside dinner and open bar.

Gia and I stayed the week after the wedding for our honeymoon and I’m not sure things could get much better.

Eventually we had to come back to reality though, she had a business and I had a team to run.

Back in the office I was greeted by the typical 97 messages including,

- A formal confirmation that Robert Kraft retired on the 26th. He has been the Rev’s owner since 1995.

- A report that Sporting KC were the top team in the latest North American rankings.

- The MLS schedule released, we open the season March 9 vs Portland at Rev Stadium and the league raised the salary cap and minimum again.

- Messi won world golden ball and Kane won world player of the year

On the 30th Locklear’s consortium completed their takeover. Our new President is Gary Locklear, Managing Director Jack Johnson, and Director Jay Gonzalez.

My first message from Mr. Locklear was to inform me that he had invested 17.25 million into the club and improved the youth training facilities. Interesting, that is a rather large sum of money. We never saw anything like that under the Kraft Sports Group regime. His second one was to lift the transfer embargo as expected.

Regrettably I wasn’t around to answer the press’ questions about the takeover.

Also regrettably I was around for a not so subtly threatening visit from Frannie. It was rather bizarre, I’m not sure exactly what she wants from me, but it was clear that she wanted everyone in the office to know she was their better and we had all best do what she says. I was polite and kept my mouth shut (for a change) and she eventually went on her way. Knowing Gia is behind me made it a little easier to take.

Coach Judah Cooks and scout Jeff Lee’s contracts expired. I started looking for replacements, and brought on a bevy of new staff members to fill other openings while I was at it:

- Ben Clarkson, a 33 year old resolute and reserved master physio joined the staff.

- Josh Romero, a balanced and friendly 33 year old Brit signed to be a reserves coach

- 36 year old German Sebastian Saufhaus signed as a scout.

- 36 year old Honduran Victor Bernardez signed on as a coach.

- 46 year old Irishman Albert Byrne signed on as a Physio.

- 38 year old Welshman Garry Aldridge signed on as a reserves physio.

- 35 year old Englishman Tyrone Mears, Coach

- 35 year old Jamaican Jacomeno Barrett, Goalkeeping coach.

I scheduled a camp opening day friendly against the Boston Rams, just like last year.

I signed Roberto Noriega to a four year extension.

The new board changed things up with a different set of away friendlies this year: We will play the Fort Lauderdale Strikers, Oklahoma City Energy, Tulsa Roughnecks and Sacramento Republic. I added a home match vs Mass United after the Boston Rams game, just like last season.

Mike and I were invited to dinner at the Locklears with the board, we were told to bring our wives and that that this would be an informal dinner to get to know each other. I didn’t need Mike or Gia to tell me that this was a big deal, but they both did anyway. So after a lot of stressing and talking about it the ‘fabulous four’ as Michelle has taken to calling us found ourselves at a suitably impressive mansion in Longmeadow Mass, just outside Springfield.

As we had drinks in the parlour Gary Locklear introduced everyone and it was immediately clear he was serious about this endeavor and had done his homework. He knew all about Mike and me and our wives, as well as all the details of the Kraft board and how they had run the team. He made a point of stressing the differences between their style and his, to him the team is not a family like it was to the Kraft’s. But he does see everyone as human beings, so while he will treat everyone with respect he said he would also terminate anyone who does not meet standards without a second thought, but never without warning. Mike and I got his message loud and clear.

The most awkward part of the evening was, of course, Frannie. She spent the evening pretending to be perfect hostess which was obviously a struggle for her. I am obviously biased, but it seemed to me she was overshadowed by Gia in every way. In fact, Gianna is probably the exact type of woman Locklear would want his wife to be, but Francesca is far from Giannas class.

The best news of the evening was the board announcing that they are spending another 11.25 million to upgrade the team's youth facilities. I looked at Mike when they told us and mouthed “no pressure”. He just raised his eyebrows and grimaced. From a practical standpoint, I love this focus on the academy, if we can produce a steady supply of talent in house everything gets a little easier. Of course it takes more than just throwing money at the academy for that to happen, but 28 million dollars of improvements sure won’t hurt.

Back home at our townhouse (I really like the way that sounds) Gia told me that she expected Francesca to continue to be a pain. She thinks Frannie is just an uneducated and inexperienced ‘girl’ that Gary married and expected to immediately turn into a perfect wife. Gia said she actually felt bad for ‘the poor girl’ because she is probably miserable, has too much free time on her hands, and no idea what to do with it. I told Gia if she felt that way she could always take Frannie under her wing and Gia snorted and said ‘not likely, if she can’t learn to behave on her own, I’ll just have to teach her a lesson’. That doesn’t sound ominous.

[edtheguy]

January 2019 continued

We agreed to a deal to purchase Brooks Lennon from Liverpool, but MLS cancelled it because we already have our 2 young designated players. Argh. Marko Golubovic transfer, same. So much for improving our forward depth.

Superdraft time:

Steve Dodd, right back with little potential

Ryan Henry, left back with some potential.

Nate Kirby, center back with very little potential.

John Jennings, midfielder with some potential

Devin Sanchez, another center back without much hope.

I called to congratulate Park Dae Dong who just scored his first international goal for South Korea.

Mike agreed to terms with Spanish attacking midfielder Alvaro Traver for a rotation role and 70k per year. We have 2 more international slots and I’ve been looking for attacking mids since the loss of Beyer. I confirmed the signing, but we have a very limited scouting report, so I hope we don’t regret it.

Egyptian central defender Mahmoud Abdel Latif showed up for a trial and Tom reported he would be our #1 CD at 20 years old, so I enquired about his contract demands, which were very reasonable. We will play him in a couple friendlies before I make the offer, just to be sure.

Offered mutual terminations to Bobby Shuttleworth, Justin Meram, Andrew Jacobson and Alidin Hajdarovic, who were all in their last year. Everyone except Andrew accepted, and Andrew took it well, he just said he was going to fight for his spot. He’s got a big fight ahead. He is behind the starters, van de Beek and Duylio, as well as academy grad Noriega, the inconsistent Herivaux. We also have super uitlity man Miller and even 18 year old CD prospect Bill Cahen is comparable at central mid.

Frannie Locklear seems to enjoy making me uncomfortable, and is treating Gianna like Gia used to treat Helen which is not making Gia happy, and that is not good. I’m also afraid Mrs. Locklear might be poking the bear...

We had a staff meeting over lunch at Amrhein’s before our camp opening team meeting and Tom reported that Nguyen, Agudelo Farrell, Herivaux, and trialist Abdel Latif all tested out in top condition as camp opened. Ian Feur recommended Farrell, Nguyen, and Klewin as possible team captains, and he recommended three narrow formations that we won’t be using. After going over everyone’s opinions Klewin, van de Beek and Duylio are my top candidates for captain.

We went back to the training facilities where the players were all settling in and held the season opening team meeting where I was pleased to see that every single player was fired up and ready for a good year.

To provide depth for injuries and international call-ups we signed 17yo GK Nick Krause from the academy. After giving the paperwork to this year's temp agency PA I headed out to the stadium for our opening day friendly.

1/28/19 vs Boston Rams - friendly - 4231 Klewin, Farrell, O’Neill, Abdel Latif, Baah, van de Beek, Duylio, Nguyen, Traver, Pratt, Agudelo, Boston 4411. We gave up an early goal when Steve Pratt was disposessed in the offensive zone, but generally controlled the game and created good chances throughout. By the end of the first half we had a 2-1 lead on a goal and assist from Lee Nguyen, the assist on a Boston U. own goal. For the second half we tried changing our central attackers roles and saw little success. Pratt came out with an injuty in the second half. The game finished 2-1.

New England Revolution vs Boston Rams

Friendly

2-1

13 Shots 6

6 On Target 2

5 Fouls 3

59% Possession 41%

Goals: Pena (6) Nguyen (13) Backhouse og (25)

After the game, in our first meeting of the year, Dr Allen reported Pratt would miss 6-8 weeks with strained knee ligaments

Frosinone made a bid for our keeper Klewin, I had to reject as we don’t have a suitable replacement and told Jason Milne he wasn't for sale

Asked Mike to suggest wingers that we could acquire but none scouted out well enough so I looked at American players listed for loan. Teal Bunbury was one of the top available, and he isn’t good enough for us. I checked out of curiosity and found that he has scored a whopping 6 goals in 47 games since leaving here.

I also cancelled a deal we had negotiated with winger Jose Ayovi. I decided to keep the international slot free in case an impact player became available as Ayovi was only slightly better than what we already have.

Aside from the all too regular Francesca sightings things seem to be going well. Gia is happily settled into the townhouse and is enjoying a fair amount of success with her business as well, so everything would be good if it weren't for our new chairman's wife always mucking around....

[edtheguy]

February 2019

There wasn’t much business to discuss at our regular post Board Meeting dinner, I was secure, they like Dae-Dong and making a profit. The lack of work discussion was a mixed blessing as it allowed more personal chit chat both good and bad. There was more discussion of the Locklear’s than I would have liked. Afterwards Gianna was happy but not her old bubbly self, which is happening more and more often these days.

The only item that crossed my desk the rest of the week was a memo from the accounting office projecting 8,700 season ticket sales.

2/3/19 vs Mass United - friendly - 4231 Klewin, Farrell, O’Neill, Abdel Latif, Baah, van de Beek, Duylio, Nguyen, Sonora, Traver, Agudelo, Mass 4231. Mass United offered so little resistance it’s hard to tell how well we played, but it was certainly a good confidence builder for the players as everything went to plan, we used all three tactics, scored with each and walked to a 5-0 win with 5 different goal scorers..

New England Revolution vs Mass United

Friendly

5-0

29 Shots 3

10 On Target 0

3 Fouls 12

57% Possession 43%

Goals: Nguyen (5) Traver (33) Agudelo (45)Sonora (79) van de Beek (pen 90)

AS Monaco’s central defender Wallace contract is expiring in 4 months and he is dominant in the air, solid all around and just the type of center back I would like. He could be signed to a pre contract at a fairly cheap 800k a year - but we would need another designated player spot, which we could buy - but we are also within 250k of the board's total payroll limit - so we’ll have to sit pat for now.

Since I missed some sort of deadline to sign him we had to enter the allocation for ST Haji Wright, which Seattle won. That is both bad news and incredibly frustrating. I can’t help but think I wouldn’t have been allowed to miss the deadline if I had a top notch PA like I used to.

Mahmoud Abdel Latif signed 2 year deal for 313k per year.

Wallace told the press he would be interested in coming here.

Mario Rodriguez injured his neck, could be out a month, but back in 12-14 days if we spend the 876 bucks to send him to a specialist. Done.

2/9/19 at Fort Lauderdale Strikers - friendly - 4231 Klewin, Farrell, O’Neill, Abdel Latif, Baah, van de Beek, Duylio, Nguyen, Sonora, Traver, Agudelo, Ft Lauderdale 442. We started out as we finished the Mass U. game and slowly slipped away as the game went on, by the end it was wave after wave of Striker attacks. Preseason games can be frustrating. We scored twice, had many other chances and Klewin made several good saves, so there were some positives. Draw 2-2

New England Revolution at Fort Lauderdale Strikers

Friendly

2-2

11 Shots 14

4 On Target 7

5 Fouls 2

56% Possession 44%

Goals: Agudelo (18) Kristo (26) Traver (55) Uccello (76)

I did ask the board for the extra DP slot and made offer for 22 year old Medellin striker Leonardo Acevedo.

2/16/19 at Oklahoma City Energy - friendly - 4141 Klewin, Farrell, O’Neill, Abdel Latif, Baah, Duylio, Sonora, van de Beek, Nguyen, Traver, Agudelo, Oklahoma City 4231 . Sometimes I really dislike preseason friendlies. I think we were fine in this game, we came out in our 4141 and were not only solid defensively but created scoring chances on the road, which is what I was looking for. But we missed the net on all 5 of our clear scoring chances and Oklahoma City crafted three goals on one scoring chance all with lightening one touch shots. I assertively told the players their performance was unacceptable, but really I’m just chalking it up to preseason. Loss 1-3.

New England Revolution at Fort Lauderdale Strikers

Friendly

1-3

16 Shots 8

5 On Target 5

2 Fouls 5

42% Possession 58%

Goals: Greig (51) van de Beek (58) Elenio (66) Garcia (86)

A new memo from the Marketing Office now projects 9300 season ticket sales.

Klewin suffered a hernia in training, will be out 4-5 weeks. Now we will need to address goalkeepers.

Acevedo spurned us and signed with Cruzeiro.

Facing the contract guarantee date I couldn’t put it off any longer and released Andrew Jacobson on a free. I asked him to meet me at Shenanigans to give him the news personally. He knew why he was there and took the news professionally, as I knew he would, which just made me more sad.

I started Mike and the scouting staff looking for keepers. Since Klewin is injured, not gone, I would like a loan deal, but that doesn’t look likely.

2/23/19 at Tulsa Roughnecks - friendly - 4312 Tierney, Farrell, Soares, Burton, Munoz, van de Beek, Duylio, Noriega, Traver, Agudelo, Rodriguez Tulsa 442 . This was both more to plan, and less. We started with our attacking 4312 and the game was indeed more open, as we surrendered several scoring chances, but actually finished the ones we created. Once we got a 3-1 lead in the second half we went with the 4141 and didn’t surrender another chance, created a few more for ourselves that we didn’t finish and ended with a 3-1 win.

New England Revolution at Tulsa Roughnecks

Friendly

3-1

12 Shots 9

6 On Target 5

6 Fouls 6

51% Possession 49%

Goals: Traver (27) Agudelo(29) Mena (pen 31) Rodriguez (56)

Traver twisted his knee and Dr Allen reported he will be out 2-3 weeks.

I signed 27 year old keeper Ronwen Williams from Red Bull Salzburg, we had to spend 140k to move Park’s contract from designated to senior to complete the deal.

Giannas family is mostly in my corner after our wedding trip, but it's obvious that some of the other ladies think I am not doing a good enough job of keeping her happy. And they are right, the whole Frannie thing is keeping her somewhat melancholy. To Gia’s credit she is trying, she keeps telling me she knew about Frannie before this started and she knows I haven’t done anything since that one night and she assures me she will be fine.

But I know that I did make that one mistake and now it’s in her face all the time which has to make it really hard for her. I wish I could make things better, but short of resigning and working somewhere else, I have no idea how. I wonder if the Pats have any openings, the whole Jayden situation actually seems less complicated at times.

All I can do is be there for whatever Gia needs and make sure I never hurt her like that again.

[edtheguy]

March 2019

Board Meeting secure, Dae-Dong still good, loss of 600k last month but still stable. Benjamin Lauth also got his continental pro license, so we took the whole staff to Worden Hall to celebrate with him, most of the wives joined us and it was a very good time. Gianna couldn’t make it though because her real estate business is slumping and she had to work, and I definitely missed her.

3/4/19 at Sacramento Republic - friendly - 4312 Williams, Farrell, Soares, Burton, Baah, van de Beek, Duylio, Noriega, Traver, Dae-Dong, Rodriguez Sacramento 442 . Once again the attacking 4312 on the road against a lesser team, followed by the tighter 4141 with a late lead proves successful. Mario is thriving in this tactic against lesser defenders - I have no illusions it will go a smoothly once we’re up against top flight defenders though. Win 3-1

New England Revolution at Sacramento Republic

Friendly

3-1

17 Shots 7

8 On Target 2

9 Fouls 16

54% Possession 46%

Goals: Rodriguez (3,24) Thompson (58) Soares (pen 90+1)

Mario Rodriguez suffered a bruised shin from a heavy tackle in the game and will miss 5-8 days.

We open the season Saturday, the 9th, vs Portland. The pre season polls have us third and Portland 5th in the shield standings. Toronto FC are the favorites followed by defending champs Sporting KC.

We go into opening day with the following roster-(last seasons MLS stats, where appropriate, in parenthesis)

Goalkeepers: (Appearances/Allowed/Clean Sheets Avg. Rating)

Ronwen Williams, 27, South Africa. First year with the revs

Philipp Klewin, 25, Germany, third year (38/45/12 6.78) -injured

Terry Tierney, 20, USA, third year (0/0//0/ ---)

Defenders: (Goals/Assists/Player of the Match)

Andrew Farrell, 26, USA, seventh year (34 (0/7/2) 7.33)

Shane O’Neill, 25, USA, third year (36 (2/7/0) 7.06)

Mahmoud Abdel Latif, 20, Egypt, first year

Gideon Baah, 27, Ghana, third year (34 (0/3/0) 7.08)

AJ Soares, 30, USA, second year (23 (0/3/0) 6.90)

Nathan Burton, 20, USA, fourth year (19 (1/1/0) 6.81)

Chris Munoz, 22, USA, second year (on loan last season)

Midfielders: (Goals/Assists/Player of the Match)

Donny van de Beek, 21, Netherlands, second year (15 1/0/1 6.87)

Duylio, 27, Brasil, fifth year (37 1/3/1 7.05)

Park Dae-Dong, 21, South Korea, second year (27 14/3/4 7.28)

Lee Nguyen, 32, USA, eighth year (31/10/10/6 7.24)

Alvaro Traver, 25, Spain, first year (--) -injured

Steve Pratt, 22, USA, second year (5 0/0/0 6.48) -injured

Roberto Noriega, 18, USA, second year (3 0/1/0 6.97)

Kyle Miller, 20, USA, third year (13 0/0/0 6.73)

David Fricke, 19, USA, third year (--)

Zachary Herivaux, 23, Haiti, fifth year (11 0/1/1 7.06)

Joel Sonora, 22, USA, third year (23 3/3/2 6.94)

Jesus Castro, 19, USA, first year (--)

Forwards: (Goals/Assists/Player of the Match)

Juan Agudelo, 26, USA, fifth year (32 10/7/1 6.95)

Mario Rodriguez, 24, USA, fourth year, (28 9/2/2 6.96) -injured

We are thinner up top than ever before after I released Meram and Hajdarovic, and losing Beyer will hurt us at left wing. We should be stronger in goal and on D, and solid in the midfield, but since I broke down and burned the last international slot on a second keeper we will find it hard to make any in season upgrades. This could be interesting.

The new board sent their first official Competition expectations to us; MLS: win; Supporters Shield, near the top; US Cup, don’t care.

Well, that is more ambitious. Gia and I actually got a chance to go out to dinner at Stella and she told me not to worry, it was a good thing that the board actually cared about football. She also told me not to worry about her, that she was just under a lot of stress right now but she was happy and she wouldn’t ever trade her life with me for a stress free life without me, which was nice to hear.

Rodriguez. Pratt, and Traver all failed their fitness tests and will be unavailable for our opener against Portland.

3/9/19 vs Portland Timbers - MLS G1 - 4213 Williams, Farrell, O’Neill, Soares, Baah, van de Beek, Duylio, Sonora, Dae-Dong, Nguyen, Agudelo. Portland 4231 DM wide. Portland started the game on the front foot and we looked to be in trouble. Sure enough their striker Max Urruti abused AJ Soares and got a clean header onto a cross for a 1-0 lead. We responded on a nice connection from Andrew Farrell to Park to tie at 1, but that was all the interest we showed in the game offensively and Gideon Baah got burned later in the game allowing another cross that Urruti beat Soares to for the 2-1 victory for Portland. Abdel Latif had a solid second half for a debut after coming on for the inadequate AJ Soares. Loss 1-2.

New England Revolution (0-0-0) vs Portland Timbers (0-0-0)

1-2

16 Shots 10

8 On Target 3

7 Fouls 11

51% Possession 49%

Goals: Urruti (17,42) Dae-Dong (26)

The final season ticket numbers came in from the the finance department and this years total is 8,008 up from 7,961 last year. Far below the marketing department’s more optimistic projections.

Next up a midweek game at defending champs Sporting Kansas City.

3/13/19 at Sporting Kansas City - MLS G2 - 4312 Williams, Farrell, O’Neill, Abdel Latif, Baah, van de Beek, Duylio, Noriega, Dae-Dong, Agudelo, Rodriguez Sporting KC 4123 DM wide . We took a risk going with our attacking 4312, but it was the right call as we controlled the game and didn’t allow any scoring chances against. Well, except one, which KC capitalized on late in the game as we were trying to protect the lead. Our offensive players have not gotten going yet as Juan was invisible and Mario, back from injury, missed a sitter before leaving the game at 60 minutes. Fortunately our central defenders salvaged a point for us, scoring our goal on a corner kick when Abdel Latif flicked the ball on to O’Neill who volleyed it home. Draw 1-1.

New England Revolution (0-0-1) at Sporting Kansas City (1-0-0)

1-1

10 Shots 9

5 On Target 5

6 Fouls 13

46% Possession 54%

Goals O’Neill (45) Tejada (77)

Next we are back home on Saturday to play Vancouver. It would have been nice to get off to a fast start, but here we are spinning our wheels, again, hoping to get some momentum going in our next game.

3/16/19 vs Vancouver Whitecaps - MLS G3 - 4231 Williams, Farrell, O’Neill, Abdel Latif, Baah, van de Beek, Duylio, Nguyen, Dae-Dong, Rodriguez, Agudelo Vancouver 4231 DM wide. This time we were the incisive team that scored on our first two shots. We also held Vancouver, who scored 4 goals in their midweek game, without a shot on target until late in the game, avoided any defensive meltdowns and kept a clean sheet. It was also good to see our forwards score the two goals. Win 2-0.

New England Revolution (0-1-1) vs Vancouver Whitecaps (1-1-0)

2-0

8 Shots 10

3 On Target 2

2 Fouls 6

55% Possession 45%

Goals: Agudelo (16) Rodriguez (33)

Duylio suffered a chest injury in extra time and Dr. Allen informed me he would be out two weeks.

Park Dae-Dong was called up for international duty.

David Fricke came to me after practice and asked to go out on loan and I agreed - he is unlikely to see any game time with us. I put him on our development list and told Mike to see what he could do.

Noriega, van de Beek, Williams, Abdel Latif, Herivaux, and O’Neill were all also called up for int’l duty.

3/23/19 at FC Dallas - MLS G4 - 4312 Williams, Farrell, O’Neill, Abdel Latif, Baah, Nguyen, van de Beek, Noriega, Traver, Rodriguez, Agudelo Dallas 4231 DM wide. Dallas sat back and played an impenetrable defence that the few times we did figure out resulted in missed nets, and Shane O’Neill lost his mark on one set piece and his man, Osvaldo Alonso, made it pay. Loss 0-1

New England Revolution (1-1-1) at FC Dallas (1-2-0)

0-1

14 Shots 9

3 On Target 3

7 Fouls 11

49% Possession 51%

Goals: Alonso (33)

Lee Nguyen was called up for international duty. Lee is pretty much a club legend here and it's always nice to see your 'poster boy' picked for the biggest stage.

Next up Hugo Sanchez and his… DC United… never get used to that.

3/27/19 vs DC United - MLS G5 - 4231 Williams, Farrell, O’Neill, Abdel Latif, Baah, Herivaux, Miller, Nguyen, Traver, Rodriguez, Agudelo DCU 4222 DM. This was one of those games where we were second best at everything. The positive that could be taken from it was that we only allowed one goal. Unfortunately we could have played another 270 minutes and we still wouldn’t have come close to scoring one ourselves. Loss 0-1.

New England Revolution (1-1-2) vs DC United (2-1-1)

0-1

10 Shots 10

1 On Target 3

10 Fouls 11

46% Possession 54%

Goals: Teixeira (23)

Next up the Montreal Impact in 10 days. Hopefully everyone is back from international duty as I still have no depth players willing to fight for a starting job.

This has not been the start to the season we were expecting, hopefully it is just a bump in the road. We are obviously hoping to make another step forward this season after last years successful campaign, not suffer through another frustratingly inconsistent season.

At least things are nice at home right now, the rare times we are both there that is.

[edtheguy]

April 2019

At the monthly Board Meeting I was secure, they were happy with player transactions, disappointed with the DCU loss. We had an operating loss of 192k last month but are financially secure overall. We had a nice dinner with the Burns’ after, but Gia is still quieter than usual. Michelle, who knows everything, kept trying to cheer her up by putting Frannie down, but it didn’t seem to help.

Park Dae-Dong dislocated his shoulder on international duty and will be out 2 months. Ouch. That’s not likely to help our form.

4/6/19 vs Montreal Impact - MLS G6 - 4231 Williams, Farrell, O’Neill, Abdel Latif, Baah, Noriega, Herivaux, Sonora, van de Beek, Traver, Rodriguez vs Montreal 4213 DM wide. Donny van de Beek enjoyed playing in Park Dae-Dong’s AMC spot as he teamed with Alvaro Traver, playing AML for the first time this year to dominate the game. Each player had a goal and assist early and then the game turned into a bit of a snooze fest, but we easily overcame a distinctly average Montreal team. Win 2-0

New England Revolution (1-1-3) vs Montreal Impact (1-1-3)

2-0

10 Shots 7

5 On Target 2

8 Fouls 14

51% Possession 49%

Goals: Traver (10) van de Beek (36)

Joel Sonora’s run as an underperforming Lee Nguyen’s replacement was shortlived as he broke his ankle and will miss three months.

After requesting a move David Fricke joined Tampa Bay Rowdies on loan.

4/10/19 vs Columbus Crew - MLS G7 - 4231 Williams, Farrell, O’Neill, Abdel Latif, Baah, Duylio, Herivaux, Castro, van de Beek, Traver, Agudelo vs 4231. We have started a disturbing trend of not getting points we should, which is never a good thing. We played a solid game, spurned several chances and couldn’t quite keep a clean sheet so we wasted a beautiful one two goal from Agudelo to van de Beek. Draw 1-1.

New England Revolution (2-1-3) vs Columbus Crew (1-2-3)

1-1

15 Shots 6

8 On Target 3

10 Fouls 14

52% Possession 48%

Goals: van de Beek (7) Finlay (48)

In a strange change of fortunes we have a good defense, 2nd in the league surrendering only 6 goals in 7 games, but our offense is struggling, 17th in the league as we have only scored 7. With our decent season last year and third place prediction this year teams are really parking the bus against us, soon it might be time to change our default tactic to the 4141.

We are only expecting 12,000 fans for the Philly game, and are 16th in the league in attendance so far this year a number that closely reflects our position in the shield standings.

4/16/19 vs Philadelphia Union - MLS G8 - 4231 Williams, Farrell, O’Neill, Abdel Latif, Baah, Duylio, Herivaux, Nguyen, van de Beek, Pratt, Agudelo 4231. And the struggle is real, we once again couldn’t manage to put a game away and this time had to score a late equalizer to even get the one point out of a game we should have won. We did actually play the 4141 for most of the game as at 30 minutes there had been no shots on goal as Philadelphia just looked to frustrate us. Agudelo and Duylio were complacent all game and will be sitting for a while. Draw 1-1.

New England Revolution (2-2-3) vs Philadelphia Union (2-1-4)

1-1

15 Shots 6

5 On Target 4

8 Fouls 8

51% Possession 49%

Goals:Raynov (84) Rodriguez (85)

Nope the 4141 wasn’t any better at breaking down the bus, it actually allowed Philly’s goal. The attacking 4312 responded. We’ll start with that next game.

4/16/19 at Real Salt Lake - MLS G9 - 4312 Williams, Farrell, Soares, Abdel Latif, Baah, Duylio, O’Neill, Herivaux, van de Beek, Agudelo, Traver vs 4123 DM wide. Well this game was different, we went from barely hanging on to not having a chance. The math seems pretty simple, this year is no better than last years start and when A.J. Soars plays we give up 2 goals. He’s played 2 games and we have allowed 2 goals in only those 2 games. And since we can’t score at the moment those are automatic losses. Loss 1-2

New England Revolution (2-3-3) at Real Salt Lake (3-2-3)

1-2

12 Shots 8

5 On Target 5

15 Fouls 4

43% Possession 57%

Goals:Ovalle (22) Agudelo (28) Farrell og(38)

Ok, with our current lack of depth I couldn’t sit Agudelo and Duylio, but Duylio will be sitting now as he broke his ankle in the game and will miss three months.

Tom and I talked about the team’s struggles while we had lunch at Blunch and decided it was steady hand time. We will stick with the 4231 and our best lineup and try to encourage the players.

I offered a contract to former academy player Scott Pownall, who is now playing for the Western Mass Pioneers.

After losing to Hugo Sanches’ new team, DC United, a couple weeks ago we now go to visit his old team, the Fire, and their new coach Jay DeMerit.

4/16/19 at Chicago Fire - MLS G10 - 4213 Williams, Farrell, O’Neill, Abdel Latif, Baah, Noriega, Herivaux, Traver, van de Beek, Rodriguez, Agudelo vs 442. Not much to say, we are struggling to even create chances and when we do we have no chance of finishing. Other teams can though, Jeff Larentowicz scored on a wonderful free kick in this one. We still have only allowed 10 goals in 10 games. We have only scored 9 though. Loss 0-1

New England Revolution (2-3-4) at Chicago Fire (4-2-4)

0-1

14 Shots 11

3 On Target 6

10 Fouls 6

44% Possession 56%

Goals:Larentowicz (17)

We have yet to win on the road this year, and what’s more concerning, we don’t look even remotely good far too much of the time. And of course when we are playing well, it just hasn’t been good enough.

We finalized the signing of Pownall, who will go straight to the bench for our next game in Orlando. Mike also came to terms with Sunderland to loan 33 year old Geoff Cameron, but I cancelled the deal. We are thin at midfield and if AJ doesn’t shape up at central defender as well, so he appears to fill a need, but Cameron is marginal at best- he lacks technique and is slow so I just can’t see it working.

It seems that Frannie Locklear is actively slandering Gia's real estate business to the Locklear’s associates which is hurting Gia’s business’ bottom line significantly. Gia and I talked about what we could do over drinks at our favorite restaurant, Estragon, but we didn’t have any brilliant ideas. At least the drinks, tapas and service were good. Estragon is run like a family and the whole staff has adopted us now that we are going there several times a week.

[edtheguy]

May 2019

The board informed me my job was stable, they like Traver but dislike losing to DC United. The financial report showed a loss 390k last month but still predicted a stable future. Gia and I backed out of dinner with the Burns’ so we could catch up with David, who was passing through town on his way to a gaming convention in Asia. He seems to be doing very well, and he thought it was pretty cool how excited the staff at Estragon was to meet him.

Steve Pratt, who hasn’t developed like I hoped, and has been bad in the few games he has played came to me upset that he didn’t get the playing time I had promised him. I told him we would have to part ways he agreed. I put him on the unwanted list and moved him to the reserve squad, which put him on waivers.

5/4/19 at Orlando City SC - MLS G11 - 4231 Williams, Farrell, O’Neill, Abdel Latif, Baah, Herivaux, Nguyen, Traver, van de Beek, Rodriguez, Agudelo vs Orlando City 4231. Good teams find ways to get points when they play poorly, bad teams leave points on the table when they play well. There is no doubt which we are right now. We played a very good game, could only manage one, very nice, Agudelo goal, missed several other chances and allowed one lucky goal to Orlando defender Arnaldo. Draw 1-1

New England Revolution (2-3-5) at Orlando City SC (3-2-3)

1-1

17 Shots 12

6 On Target 6

5 Fouls 9

49% Possession 51%

Goals Agudelo (13) Arnaldo(60)

Diego Fagundez made the news as it was reported that a “goalless Fagundez worries Spartak Moscow” He has 3 goals in 26 games since joining Spartak.

Steve Pratt cleared waivers and is no longer with us. We made a loan offer for American born striker Brooks Lennon, who we tried to purchase in the offseason and Liverpool has now listed for loan. We also offered Klewin out for sale as Ronwen Williams has taken over the #1 job and the international slot would be useful. As soon as we listed Philipp we received several offers.

5/9/19 vs NYCFC - MLS G12 - 4312 Williams, Farrell, O’Neill, Abdel Latif, Baah, Herivaux, Pownall, Castro, van de Beek, Rodriguez, Agudelo, vs NYCFC 4123 DM. The kids Pownall and Castro got starts and looked good. So did NYCFC keeper Steve Clark who was player of the game and had a 8.1 rating. Of course right now I might be able to keep a clean sheet against us. If we could find some goals games like this would be very encouraging. Draw 0-0.

New England Revolution (2-4-5) vs NYCFC (6-1-4)

0-0

15 Shots 11

10 On Target 4

8 Fouls 14

53% Possession 47%

Goals:--

The press covered our bad day in front of goal, Clarks great day in goal and my relationship with NYCFC’s new coach Preki, which is poor.

Scott Pownall, who has played two good games for us since his signing suffered a chest injury near the end of the game and will miss our next match. We now sit 18th out of 20 in the standings, 15 positions below our projected finish. This doesn’t look too good. If I can’t figure out how to have a season without one of these 10-15 game stretches of awfulness, I shouldn’t be here.

It hit the news that LA was interested in AJ Soares, I said I would listen to any offers. I then transfer listed him at 1m - he is still valued at 1.4m - and when he asked why I told him it only made sense at this point in his career and he agreed. We finalized the Brooks Lennon signing and he will start on the bench for the next game.

5/12/19 vs Los Angeles Galaxy - MLS G13 - 4231 Williams, Farrell, O’Neill, Abdel Latif, Baah, Herivaux, Noriega, Castro, van de Beek, Rodriguez, Agudelo vs LA Galaxy 4411 2DM. Well we finally got our goal, but only the one. It was enough for the three points though - thanks to an outstanding performance from Ronwen Williams in goal. Win 1-0.

New England Revolution (2-5-5) vs Los Angeles Galaxy (4-3-6)

1-0

16 Shots 8

8 On Target 4

8 Fouls 22

57% Possession 43%

Goals:van de Beek (13)

Lennon made his debut off the bench for a once again underperforming Juan Agudelo and was ok.

We failed to complete any more moves before the transfer deadline, Mohamed Fares rejected Mike's contract offer which didn’t really matter as Klewin has still not agreed to terms with any of his transfer partners meaning that we still do not have an available international slot.

5/18/19 vs Seattle - MLS G14 - 4312 Williams, Farrell, O’Neill, Abdel Latif, Baah, Pownall, Herivaux, Lennon, van de Beek, Traver, Agudelo vs Seattle 532 WB. And as I had hoped, once we scored a goal or two we were pretty good. This game was total domination, and while we only scored two goals Seattle will have been happy to hear the final whistle as we came in waves start to finish and never let them do anything. We were also denied two penalty shots as both midfielders, Herivaux and Pownall - who each played fantastic games - were pulled down in the box. Win 2-0.

New England Revolution (3-5-5) vs Seattle Sounders FC (3-4-7)

2-0

23 Shots 11

9 On Target 3

3 Fouls 12

58% Possession 42%

Goals:Abdel Latif (18) Traver (62)

Brooks Lennon played poorly in his first start and then left with a bruised thigh and will be out for 5-8 days. Academy grad Jesus Castro came of the bench and played a fantastic game, getting a brilliant assist on Traver’s goal.

Abdel Latif was called up for international duty from 5/25 to 6/1, looking at our schedule it might not even cost him a game.

Donny van de Beek called up from 6/18-7/10, will miss 2 league games and at least one cup game. The only good news here is that Park should be back from his international duty injury by then.

5/22/19 at Houston Dynamo - MLS G15 - 4231 Williams, Farrell, O’Neill, Abdel Latif, Baah, Pownall, Herivaux, Castro, van de Beek, Traver, Agudelo vs Houston 442. Thankfully this game was a continuation of the Seattle game, except for the minor hiccup when the Dynamo tied the game at one against the flow of play. Fortunately we responded. Win 3-1.

New England Revolution (4-5-5) at Houston Dynamo (3-5-6)

3-1

20 Shots 10

10 On Target 3

7 Fouls 12

54% Possession 46%

Goals: Traver (40) Lucatero (65) Herivaux (73) van de Beek (pen 78)

We drew DC United in our first US Cup match. That should be interesting.

Leagues around the world have ended for the 2018-19 seasons and Real Madrid, Chelsea, PSG, Bayern and Juventus all won their respective leagues. Nothing to see there.

The amateur team Southern California Seahorses beat third division and professional outfit Colorado Springs Switchbacks in early round US cup action making headlines.

We had nine days before our next game at Colorado and during the week Gia and I had Kate and Andrew over for dinner. They are a very impressive young couple, smart, mature, totally obsessed with their work. I wish I was more like them sometimes. Gia pointed out there’s no talk of them having a family yet though, which is a shame - the world could use more people like them raising children.

[edtheguy]

June 2019

We had a videoconference with the board before the game against the Rapids, and it was the same board meeting as last month, my job is stable, Traver is good, losing to Chicago is bad. The financial report was worse though, we lost 521k last month, but they still don’t seem concerned.

6/1/19 at Colorado Rapids - MLS G16 - 4231 Williams, Farrell, O’Neill, Cahen, Baah, Pownell, Herivaux, Castro, van de Beek, Traver, Agudelo vs Colorado 4231 DM wide. We looked cool and professional and made some nice free flowing attacking moves throughout the first half and failed to convert any of the chances. We alternated between missing the net and great saves by their keeper (another 7+ rating for an opposing keeper) and Colorado made good on one counter attack when our rookie central defender lost his mark. We upped the attack to try to get into the game and piled up some shots and highlights, but no goals. Loss 0-1.

New England Revolution (5-5-5) at Colorado Rapids (4-4-7)

0-1

12 Shots 6

6 On Target 5

11 Fouls 12

54% Possession 46%

Goals:Serna (40)

Grr. Stay. Positive.

Mahmoud Abdel Latif became an American citizen, freeing up an international slot.

Before our next game in Columbus Greg told the press he was looking to humiliate me and when they asked what I thought of his comments I told them that I’d obviously gotten under his skin. Then I refused to comment on Cedrick “Superman” Mabwati and his 10 goals in 13 games against us.

In a published report our academy was tied for fourth in developing the most MLS players..

Ronwen Williams, Roberto Noriega and Jesus Castro were all called up for international duty. That’s 2 US under 20’s internationals from our academy.

6/8/19 at Columbus Crew - MLS G17 - 4231 Williams, Farrell, O’Neill, Abdel Latif, Baah, Pownall, Herivaux, Castro, Dae-Dong, Traver, Lennon vs Columbus 4231. Good for Greg. I’m Embarrassed. I have nothing else to say about this ridiculous game. Loss 2-4

New England Revolution (5-5-6) at Columbus Crew (3-3-10)

2-4

10 Shots 7

4 On Target 5

8 Fouls 9

51% Possession 49%

Goals:Finlay (19,24) Valencia (33) Trapp (34) Lennon (48) Herivaux (75)

We are so much better at being bad than we are at being good. We have now undone any good that might have come from our 3 game winning streak. This is the first time we have allowed more than two goals in a game this year, and we allowed 4…. in 15 minutes.

Moving on.

When asked about Berhalter after the game I told the press that it was unbelievable that I was having to answer questions about someone who won’t even shake my hand after the match. Greg said the win just proves that I’m out of my depth and shouldn’t be here.

I’m starting to wonder if he isn’t right. When we got home Gianna chastised me for being 'ungentlemanly'. I know she's right.

And after the game Abdel Latif needed to go on leave and Brooks Lennon, our first striker to score in a month tore a stomach muscle and won’t be scoring for another month.

Are you kidding me?

So we will take the pitch against NYCFC with the following players unavailable either through injury or international duty: Williams, Abdel Latif, Duylio, van de Beek, Sonora, Nguyen, Lennon, Dae-Dong.

This is gonna be fun. But there’s nothing to do but come up with a plan and give it our best shot.

6/15/19 vs NYCFC - MLS G18 - 4141 Krause , Farrell, O’Neill, Burton, Baah, Pownall, Castro, Noriega, Herivaux, Rodriguez, Traver vs NYCFC 4123 DM wide. It would have been really cool if we could have gotten something from this game, or at least shown a little heart. Alas, neither of those things happened. NYCFC was really bad too, the game was there for the taking, but they did manage to score a goal, which we were never going to do. Loss 0-1

New England Revolution (5-5-7) vs NYCFC (4-4-7)

0-1

14 Shots 8

0 On Target 2

10 Fouls 15

43% Possession 57%

Goals: Booty (16)

I have had to reject two separate offers for our captain Donny van de Beek, the last was a 8m offer from Cardiff.

Shane O’Neill tore a stomach muscle in training and will be out 3-4 weeks. No worries, we weren’t planning on playing any games for the next month anyway.

6/19/19 vs DC United - US Cup - 4231 Krause, Farrell, Cahen, Burton, Baah, Pownall, Miller, Nguyen, Herivaux, Traver, Rodriguez vs DCU Not much to say, another superb game played by our opposition and we appear to have no shot of scoring ever again. Mario had one nearly empty net and managed to miss entirely. Other than that DCU could relax for most of the game. Old friend London Woodbury got to rub salt in the wounds by scoring the game's only goal. Loss 0-1

New England Revolution vs DC United

US Cup

0-1

11 Shots 7

3 On Target 4

13 Fouls 16

50% Possession 50%

Goals:Woodbury (40)

This is the kind of season that gets legendary managers fired. I am not a legendary manager.

SV Mattersburg made a 1m offer for AJ Soares which we accepted. Selling A.J. is the right thing to do, he can't influence an MLS game in a positive manner anymore, but in my usual fit of sarcasm I told Gianna that maybe we could get down to zero available players for the next match and save the fans some misery. I got quite the meaningful look in reply.

6/22/19 at Orlando City SC - MLS G19 - 4231 Farrell, Cahen, Abdel Latif, Baah, Pownall, Herivaux, Nguyen, Dae-Dong, Traver, Agudelo vs Orlando City 4231. We played very well and held a 1-0 lead for most of the game. OCSC went all out attacking in the last 15 minutes just long enough to get one shot on goal - and one goal, then sat back and watched us squander three shots on goal. Draw 1-1.

New England Revolution (5-5-8) at Orlando City SC (doesn’t matter)

1-1

12 Shots 5

6 On Target 1

12 Fouls 10

54% Possession 46%

Goals: Agudelo (43) Shea (79)

We had a busy week after the OCSC game:

Cahen sprained his ankle in the game and will be out 5-6 weeks. Join the group.

Abdel Latif was once again looking jaded, so I sent him for the full two weeks this time.

Cardiff met van de Beek’s free release clause, but he rejected their offer.

Soares signed with Mattersburg

Our president Gary Locklear announced a link with Chelsea. The marketing department was tickled pink with this announcement. We will have an annual friendly match with them and supposedly access to players for loan, but I know that doesn’t always amount to much, especially since many of their youngsters won’t be ready for this level either.

Herivaux and O’Neill were both called up for international duty.

6/29/19 vs New York Red Bull - MLS G20 - 4231 Williams, Farrell, Burton, Baah, Munoz, Pownell, Herivaux, Nguyen, Dae-Dong, Rodriguez, Agudelo vs New York 4231. If we were going to be a good team we would play like this. We dominated in flow of play, scoring chances, and goals, start to finish. Juan remembered how to score, but no one else did. Win 3-0

New England Revolution (5-6-8) vs New York Red Bull (9-6-5)

3-0

18 Shots 14

10 On Target 5

7 Fouls 12

51% Possession 49%

Goals:Agudelo (17,35,pen 62)

Winning is easier when your striker actually scores, and it’s especially easy when he scores a hat trick. This is the third year that Juan has been inconsistent at best and he and Lee seem to have issues playing for me. Over the last two years they have shown up as issues in Tom’s notes and neither one of them reacts well to my pep talks. Everyone else on the team has come around since my ‘attitude change’ last season after which I started giving consistent positive encouragement.

We now have two weeks off to lick our wounds, then face second overall Toronto FC. I don’t know who is comforting who more now, but since we are both having a rough patch at work I think it has been good for both Gia and me to have a shoulder to cry on at home.

[edtheguy]

July 2019

At the monthly board meeting I was told that I was down to stable - they like Pownall, don’t like losing to Columbus. There is definitely a different tone at the meetings now, this is a more football oriented board for sure. Gia’s business might be going under and I might soon be unemployed, we are both keeping our chins up for now but it is a little worrisome. And humbling. Maybe I should look into exactly how welfare works.

the NACL starts next month, we were drawn in group B with the Montreal Impact and Costa Rican team Club Deportivo Saprissa. This is a perfect time for us to make our continental debut, since we are in such great form. I talked to the the staff and stressed the need to get our house in order over the next four weeks.

After our one good game we had 5 players in the MLS team of the week. Both team of the week strikers were from our team, Agudelo and Rodriguez - hmmm - Dae-Dong, Baah, and left back Chris Munoz in his MLS debut (who was in the lineup at Tom’s recommendation)

Shakhtar made a bid for van de Beek and we rejected it and Donny asked why he wasn’t allowed to leave. This could get messy.

Or not - A few days later Sampdoria made a 7.75m bid that Gary Locklear felt was too good to pass up and accepted on the team's behalf.

Oh, he’s one of those team presidents. Great....

We held a weeklong coaches conference to discuss basic tactical and training philosophies at a local conference center, to get away from the daily grind in a hope that it would clear our mind. We rotated our schedule so there would be coaches around for training with the few healthy players that weren’t on international duty. We found that our base tactic, in theory was pretty solid but identified some areas that we could improve. Mostly in linking play and varied attacks, we will try our theories out against Toronto on the 14th.

According to the press Roma are chasing Park Dae-Dong. I hope they don’t make any offers that are “too good to refuse”

We accepted a 8.25m bid from Shaktar for van de Beek.

7/14/19 vs Toronto FC - MLS G21 - 4231 Williams, Farrell, Abdel Latif, Baah, Munoz, Pownell, van de Beek, Nguyen, Dae-Dong, Rodriguez, Agudelo vs Toronto 4123 DM wide. For this game at least our improved linking and multiple attack lanes worked well - and quickly. Juan in a new role scored at 1 minute, Mario, in the same role, scored at 3 minutes and Park, in a new role scored at 20 minutes. After that we were done though. But Toronto was pretty much done all game so we had 70 minutes of stalemate, which suits the team with the 3 goal lead just fine. We did surrender one late and switched to the 4141, which solidified the stalemate. Win 3-1

New England Revolution (6-6-8) vs Toronto FC (13-5-5)

3-1

9 Shots 6

4 On Target 2

9 Fouls 17

46% Possession 54%

Goals:Agudelo (1) Ramirez (3) Dae-Dong (20) Giovinco (66)

At least the press will be happy, they will get to ask about Giovinco always scoring against us. They also asked about the MLS high 26 players we have used. Umm. I said it was bad luck, but they have a point, the lack of consistency in our lineup is definitely not helping.

We completed the signing of 22 year old Argentinian striker Braian Mansilla from Racing Club for 2.3M. We had to pay to change Ronwen Williams contract to regular instead of designated and gave Mansilla a 5year 263k per year contract. He was on my shortlist of striker candidates, but Mike actually made the bid for him, which I of course, agreed with. Why he is on a designated contract I’m not sure, or for that matter, why we are allowed to ‘buy’ other players out of designated status - what was the point of the contract being designated in the first place? MLS is… well MLS.

Apparently the Mansilla signing is our record expenditure. I hope he is worth it, my last ‘prize’ striker didn’t turn out so well. Cough - Zuniga - cough.

Donny van de Beek signed with Sampdoria (the lower of the two offers) and it was reported that his transfer fee was a topic of discussion in the soccer world outside of the two clubs involved. It was also reported that our fans recognized that the offer was too good to refuse. I actually would have liked to refuse, but Donny is excited to play in Serie A and it is good we aren’t standing in his way.

We now have a 1.7M transfer budget and 13.6m available payroll against the boards salary cap. This board is definitely different than the Kraft Sports group. We only have 850k against the MLS cap though and while we can move some of the 1.7m in allocation funds to salary, we can’t go the other way and all of the board’s available cap room is useless, unless we want to sign a very designated player. We have 2 international slots open, time to evaluate some big name free agents.

Speaking of very designated Victor Wanyama is the most interesting holding midfielder on our radar, he is available on a free and willing to entertain signing with us. For 5m/year. He’s 28 and I just have visions of Jermaine Jones dancing in my head. I just can’t spend that much on one player unless he is a dead certain game changer. I put a 200k bid on Brazilian midfielder Alex Cruz who is definitely a notch below Wanyama, but there are a lot of notches below 5 million dollars. It is also rumored that Mike is going to bid on South African Bongani Zungu who looks to be a notch or two below Cruz.

Diego Fagundez scored in Spartak Moscow’s first game of the year, ending a drought of over thirteen hours of game time without a goal.

We had to replace Donny van de Beek as captain, the only option I really had was Andrew Farrell. I would prefer a more professional leader, but all of the professional personalities on the team are lacking in leadership skills.

7/20/19 vs Montreal Impact - MLS G22 - 4231 Williams, Farrell, Burton, Baah, Munoz, Pownell, Duylio, Nguyen, Dae-Dong, Rodriguez, Agudelo vs Montreal 4231. Our coaching summit appears to have been worth it. Remember when we were playing well but were just missing goals? Well, we found them. The first half was a non stop Revolution offensive featuring four big time misses by Mario Rodriguez and two goals from Juan Agudelo. We took Mario off at half and put in our new striker Braian Mansilla, moving Juan to Mario’s inside forward position and in less than 5 minutes Juan had his hat trick on a nice assist from Braian, who later scored his first goal for the team. Frustratingly we missed out on a clean sheet for the second game in a row, but since we are missing both of our starting center backs, I guess it’s not that bad. Win 5-1

New England Revolution (7-6-8) vs Montreal Impact (8-5-9)

5-1

22 Shots 4

14 On Target 3

5 Fouls 9

51% Possession 49%

Goals:Agudelo (7,45,50) Burton (56) Jones (81) Mansilla (85)

The fans were ecstatic at Mansilla’s performance in his debut and the team's performance in general. Me too. Next up we host Columbus, the we have a midweek friendly with Chelsea as part of our affiliation. That game ought to put some fans in the seats which will make the club some money, but with the team's profit for the season sitting at 33 million I don’t think that’s the biggest concern.

Juan won player of the week for his hat trick against Montreal. Baah, Burton and Farrell were all named to the team of the week along with Juan.

No Cinderella story in the US cup this year as the last non-professional team in the competition, the Southern California Seahorses, was knocked out in the quarter finals by Sporting KC. The Seahorses also set a cup record for goals scored (17) and allowed (12) in the competition during their run.

Alex Cruz rejected Mike’s contract offer.

Farrell, O’Neill and Agudelo were named to the MLS all star team led by Vancouver Head Coach Carl Robinson.

Swansea offered Charlie Austin to us for 2.9m, Mike wisely declined. Austin would be an improvement over Juan, but at his age and price the value just isn’t there - and I’m not sure he would even be an improvement over Braian Mansilla now, let alone in a year or two.

7/27/19 vs Columbus Crew - MLS G23 - 4231 Williams, Farrell, Abdel Latif, O’Neill, Baah, Duylio, Pownall, Nguyen, Traver, Agudelo, Mansilla vs Columbus 4231. Mansilla scored early to put us ahead, Juan looked like he was trying to channel his inner Mario for a minute as he hit the post on an absolute sitter, but then he fought his way through four Columbus defenders, getting to the ball first and cleaning up his mess by tapping it home. After that we were off. We have had hot streaks each of the last two seasons, but nothing even close to these last four games. We are embarrassing the opposition and making it look easy. With our regular central defenders back we also kept a clean sheet - easily. Win 3-0.

New England Revolution (8-6-8) vs Columbus Crew (6-4-11)

3-0

17 Shots 4

11 On Target 2

9 Fouls 11

62% Possession 38%

Goals: Mansilla (20) Agudelo (36) Lennon (82)

Columbus who? I told the press I didn’t have any time for Greg. Gianna wasn’t impressed.

Since we have 30M in the bank I thought it would be worth asking for something, but the board had already improved our youth recruitment, coaching and training facilities this year. So I looked over the rest of our operations. We are near the bottom of the league in attendance, so expanding the ground doesn’t make sense, so I finally asked to improve our training facilities, which are already rated excellent. They agreed immediately. Huh. I decided while I was there I’d try for more coaches…this time they asked why. I said it would allow more specialization and they said they agreed… huh… this is different.

After the meeting I got a chance to talk to Mr. Locklear in person. I had been considering speaking with him about the conflict between our wives for a while and had put it off because I was concerned that it wouldn’t end well. But it doesn’t mean much if you only stand up for what's important when it’s easy, so I bit the bullet and told him that Frannie was unethically undermining Gianna’s multimillion dollar business.

I had been right to be apprehensive about this conversation. It did not go well. He essentially told me that I should stick to things I was at least partially competent with, like football, and leave the business matters to my betters. He also basically told me that if my woman couldn’t cut it in the business world I should keep her at home so she could run the household like she was supposed to. He seemed to think that would solve all of our problems. Needless to say I was seeing red after the conversation.

After a poor performance in the Gold Cup Caleb Porter was fired as USA Head Coach. His rumored replacements are the Impact’s Giovanni Savarese, the Crew’s Greg Berhalter, USA U20’s coach Tab Ramos and Seattle’s Pete Vagenas. Both Greg and Pete have been two of my biggest critics. None of that made me feel too good.

Agudelo, Baah, Farrell, and Williams were all on the MLS team of the week.

We completed the signing of Welsh midfielder Lee Evans, who would be completely inadequate as a replacement for van de Beek, but was the best we could do without breaking the bank. The coaches feel he is on par with Duylio and fairly solid - but average across the board, which is in contrast to his performances in games for Wolves over the last three years in the Championship, which were improving each year and outstanding last season. We will hope he proves the coaches wrong. At least he isn’t using up allocation funds or a designated player spot.

After another day pouring over recommendations and scouting reports it looks like we will probably leave the DP slot empty, there just isn’t anyone worth using it on out there right now.

44 year old Jamaican coach Tyrone Marshall was my first addition to our newly expanded coaching staff.

The MLS all stars beat Girondins de Bordeaux 2-2 on penalties (4-2). Andrew Farrell and Shane O’Neill each played an average half, Juan was poor.

Juan, who scored 5 goals in the month came in second to Jozy Altidore in player of the month voting.

Next up is the friendly with Chelsea, which is part of their preseason buildup.

[edtheguy]

August 2019

8/1/19 vs Chelsea - friendly - 4141 Krause Ready Cahen Burton Miller Evans Noriega Sonora Lennon Kiwomya Rodriguez vs Chelsea 4231.We can’t be too embarrassed here, Chelsea dominated the game but only won 2-1 against our reserve players, so we don't have much to be ashamed of. Our 4141 that we developed in this weeks mini coaching summit and used in the second half, held them to 2 shots on target. Lee Evans had a 7.0 rating. Loss 1-2.

New England Revolution vs Chelsea

Friendly

1-2

4 Shots 28

3 On Target 7

10 Fouls 9

40% Possession 60%

Goals: Samaris (10) Lennon (41) Berardi (69)

I was apprehensive for this month's Board Meeting after my recent unpleasant conversation with our president but the board once again showed that their main concern was the football on the pitch and not any outside interference. After our recent good form my job was back to very secure. They are happy with the 5-1 win over Montreal, but not with 0-1 loss to NYCFC. Turned a 79k profit last month. We had a very subdued dinner with the Burns' at Worden Hall afterwards.

MLS is not allowing us to participate in an allocation for Bobby Wood, who looks pretty good. This has happened before, I think it’s because we have to use a young designated player spot to sign him if we win, which we don’t have, and not some devious MLS scheme, but you can never be sure.

8/11/19 vs Philadelphia Union - MLS G24 - 4231 Williams, Farrell, O’Neill, Baah, Munoz, Duylio, Pownall, Nguyen, Traver, Agudelo, Mansilla vs 4231. Freddy Adu (I’ve hear that name somewhere before…) scored a nice goal early and a nice goal late, we couldn’t be bothered to actually put a shot on net despite several opportunities. We did cut the lead to one late on a Philly error, but when we opened up to try to chase the game Farrell made a mistake and the Union capitalized. Loss 1-3.

New England Revolution (9-6-8) vs Philadelphia Union (8-4-11)

1-3

18 Shots 7

5 On Target 5

11 Fouls 3

50% Possession 50%

Goals: Adu(13,79) Raynov(52) Traver(76)

After the game Chris Gordon, of the Foxboro Soccer review wouldn’t take no comment for an answer when he asked me about our struggles on the road and after he asked the third time I left the press conference. I think it’s good to give Gianna these chances to criticize my behavior, it takes her mind off her business for a little while.

That ends our 4 game winning streak and five games unbeaten. It’s not time to panic though, it looked like it was just an off day. Duylio worked his way back onto the bench though, his tackling has been marginal before his injury and he was poor today and had to come off. In a 4231 there is too much riding on the two holding midfielders to play around with that. Zachary has earned a continued run, and the new guy Lee Evans will get a chance.

We now have ten days until we host the Impact in our first NACL game.

Gianna and I went to dinner at The Gallows to try to have a good time and take her mind off work. At least things are better at my job now, they sure aren’t at Gianna’s. She had worked night and day this last month to put together a deal that would have made her whole year, only to have the buyers back out at the last minute to join a project led by Gary Locklear to develop more land around Revolution Stadium. She pointed out that might not have anything to do with the Locklear’s being out to get anyone, it made good sense for everyone involved no matter what. I’m not convinced though.

8/21/19 vs Montreal Impact - NACL Group Stage - 4231 Williams, Farrell, O’Neill, Baah, Munoz, Duylio, Pownall, Nguyen, Traver, Agudelo, Mansilla vs 442. Montreal came out in a defensive attitude and we played an absolutely dominating first half but only got one goal, when Montreal keeper Zac MacMath dropped a Andrew Farrell cross and Park pounced. The 1-0 lead set up a nervy and hard fought second half. It was still 1-0 at 80 minutes when Montreal got a good chance that Ronwen Williams saved. That is when I lost my nerve and changed to our counter 4141, at which point Montreal immediately changed to an attacking formation and I got worried. But we held and hit on the counter, just like we are supposed to and Alvaro Traver finished a nice cross from Gideon Baah, who was sent in on a nice pass from Lee Evans, win 2-0.

New England Revolution (0-0-0) vs Montreal Impact (0-0-0)

2-0

25 Shots 9

7 On Target 3

12 Fouls 3

56% Possession 44%

Goals: Dae-Dong (25) Traver (88)

Montreal and Saprissa had already drawn their first game, so this win puts us in the early lead in the group.

Juan Agudelo injured his foot in the game and will miss 2-3 weeks. Add injury prone to inconsistent over the last few years to Juan’s scouting report.

Montreal’s new head coach Jonathan Spector, who complemented me before the game, said he had to give us credit, we were simply better than them in that game.

Jesse Marsch told the press he agreed with me that this wasn’t any kind of grudge match, and it just smacked of the press trying to rile things up.

8/24/19 at New York Red Bull - MLS G25 - 4231 Williams, O’Neill, Cahen, Abdel Latif, Baah, Pownall, Evans, Sonora, Lennon, Traver, Mansilla vs 4231. This game was a battle from the start, with the teams trading chances and both Robles and Williams making some nice saves. Mansilla struck at the start of the second half to give us the lead and at 60 minutes we made the move to the 4141 as we were being firmly out chanced by that point. We also swapped out Mansilla and Traver due to fitness. The tactical change and substitutions, coupled with the squad rotation in the starting lineup all added up to too much and the Red Bull scored twice. The second was from outside the box by Kelyn Rowe, of course. Loss 1-2.

New England Revolution (9-6-9) at New York Red Bull (10-8-9)

1-2

8 Shots 16

3 On Target 6

5 Fouls 10

51% Possession 49%

Goals:Mansilla (46) McIerney (69) Rowe (79)

That was a game we really couldn’t afford to lose if we wanted to make any noise in MLS this year. Or even if we wanted to have as good a season as last year. All we can do is get as many points as possible from here on out and see where the chips land.

Donny van de Beek had a debut to forget with Sampdoria, earning a 6.1 match rating.

We had 8 players called up for international duty from September 3 through the 10th, four starters, Ronwen Williams, Park Dae-Dong, Andrew Farrell, and Mahmoud Abdel Latif, and four others, Zachary Herivaux, Roberto Noriega, Jesus Castro, and Nick Kraus. This will seriously affect the one game we have during that period, a MLS match against NYCFC. Which is worrisome because the MLS game before that is just two days after the Saprissa NACL match and will have to feature some squad rotation. We could easily be looking at three league losses on the spin if we aren’t careful.

8/28/19 at Saprissa - NACL group match - 4231 Williams, Farrell, O’Neill, Abdel Latif, Baah, Duylio, Pownall, Nguyen, Dae-Dong, Traver, Mansilla vs 4231. I let Tom take the overall talk and then I passionately told each unit that I expected a performance from them. I don’t know if that helped or not, but whatever the reason we didn’t have any type of complacent letdown as we surged to a 4-0 lead, we even had a 5th goal disallowed. At 60 minutes we made a couple substitutions and changed to the 4141 using the rest of the game to tweak the roles and duties. Win 4-1.

New England Revolution (1-0-0) at Saprissa (0-1-0)

4-1

23 Shots 10

12 On Target 7

5 Fouls 7

52% Possession 48%

Goals: Mansilla (10) Traver (19,37,46) Williams og (50)

Alvaro Traver, who has basically taken the inconsistent Rodriguez’s job, had his first hat trick for us in the game.

Next we host Orlando City in three days, we will need to put out as strong a lineup as we can. Here is a fitness test for the team.

8/31/19 vs Orlando City SC - MLS G26 - 4231 Williams, Farrell, O’Neill, Abdel Latif, Baah, Duylio, Pownall, Nguyen, Dae-Dong, Traver, Mansilla vs 4231. Mission one done. We passed our fitness test with flying colors, not only did all eleven starters make the game we played well too. It still wasn’t easy, we had a couple nice saves from Williams and two penalties from Tyler Turner clattering people in the box - but Lee Nguyen only converted one of them. Still it was a nice win 2-0.

New England Revolution (9-6-10) vs Orlando City SC (9-10-8)

2-0

19 Shots 12

10 On Target 4

2 Fouls 10

48% Possession 52%

Goals: Nguyen (pen 19) Mansilla (32)

Park Dae-Dong left the game with an ankle injury and Dr. Allen’s report couldn’t have been much worse. Park had a broken ankle and will be out the rest of the year.

That's gonna hurt. At least we aren't playing for anything in MLS, but it puts a damper on our NACL hopes for sure.

The media coverage after the game rightfully focused on Park’s injury. In an effort to cover his important position we put a loan offer in on Tottenham midfielder 19 year old John O’Neill. We still have some time in the transfer window, so we will have to explore other options too. We have two international slots and a Designated Player slot available, but there aren’t any obvious must buys that our scouts have found. Victor Wanyama is still out there - but we are not struggling in the holding midfielder role at the moment. Of course things can change.

Right now Juan Agudelo leads the team with 12 goals and Andrew Farrell leads with a 7.62 avg rating and 10 assists. Neither of these come as a surprise. Our passing percentage leader might however as it is Scott Pownall at 83%, as might our player of the match leader, which is Alvaro Traver with 4.

Gia is over stressed all the time now because of her business struggles as Francesca is having more success in driving her business away than Gia is having at bringing it in. I still feel I have to do what I can to help, and since talking to Gary Locklear didn’t do any good I confronted Frannie and told her I had nothing to lose and unless she backed down things would get ugly, she wasn’t concerned with my threats in the least. So I made my last move and made a bluff about knowing I wasn’t her only indiscretion. I asked her if she hadn’t made her point already and if it wouldn’t make sense just to walk away at this point. I have no idea how she will react, she hasn't seemed to be the most stable woman I've ever known so far. We will just have to wait and see.

[edtheguy]

September 2019

September's Board Meeting was back to our old fashioned boring meetings. Just like last month I was very secure, they loved beating Montreal 5-1, hated losing to Philadelphia 1-3. The Finance Office reported a 438k profit last month and said we were financially secure. We didn’t have dinner afterwards as Gianna was once again trying to salvage some business deal. I went home and put a video call into David so I could hear about his video gamer recruiting successes.

We finalized the John O’Neill loan and the fans approved. So did the coaches, putting him just a notch below Park and citing his acceleration and first touch as being phenomenal. After watching him myself the only weaknesses I could find are long throws and leadership - which were exactly Parks weaknesses. It’s never easy to replace a key player during a season though so we’ll see if the kid can step into some pretty big shoes. And now we have double O’Neill power with Shane on D and Jon at AMC, eventually. We’ll start Lennon next game and Bring John off the bench and go from there.

9/7/19 at NYCFC - MLS G27 - 4231. Tierney O’Neill Cahen Burton Munoz Pownall Dulio Nguyen Lennon Traver Mansilla vs 4312 narrow. I could actually make the case that we should have won this game, we outplayed NYCFC for a large portion of the game and had some good scoring chances and even held a 1-0 lead for a while. But we didn’t win. Ultimately all the missing players caught up with us. Loss 1-2

New England Revolution (10-6-10) at NYCFC (9-10-8)

1-2

13 Shots 13

7 On Target 4

7 Fouls 13

59% Possession 41%

Goals: Traver (24) Salgado (38) Poku (79)

We actually had a quiet week of practice for a change leading up to our match in Toronto against the 2nd placed team in MLS.

9/14/19 at Toronto FC - MLS G27 - 4231 Williams, Farrell, O’Neill, Abdel Latif, Baah, Pownall, Herivaux, Nguyen, O’Neill, Agudelo, Mansilla vs 4123 wide. We definitely got something very wrong this year. We were totally outclassed in this game and completely capitulated. Flow of play was even, but they wanted to score goals and we didn’t. Not much we can do about it now. Loss 1-3.

New England Revolution (10-6-11) at Toronto FC (15-6-8)

1-3

12 Shots 8

3 On Target 4

8 Fouls 14

50% Possession 50%

Goals:Giovinco (16) McCarty (46,61) Nguyen (69)

The following week was another uneventful one, something I would have been grateful for if things were going well. Right now, however, the status quo is not really to my liking.

Jay DeMerit and I had a pleasant exchange in the press before our match and he said he was looking forward to drinks after the match.

9/21/19 at Chicago Fire - MLS G29 - 4231 Williams, Farrell, O’Neill, Abdel Latif, Baah, Duylio, Evansl, Nguyen, O’Neill, Agudelo, Mansilla vs 442. Neither team will be happy with this game, Chicago, the favourite, blew a two goal lead late, and we gave up three freaking goals to wind up with a 3-3 draw.

New England Revolution (10-6-12) at Chicago Fire (11-8-9)

3-3

20 Shots 9

9 On Target 4

13 Fouls 4

50% Possession 50%

Goals:Long (12) Mansilla (21,81,82) Accam (42) Gilberto (75)

Draws aren’t good enough at this point, but now our defense that has been so strong all season is letting us down. We are really suffering without Park and Donny.

The pess decided that the Montreal game was a rivalry and that that Jonathan Spector and I who have a good relationship are in a war of words. They did find time to ask one question about our group, and I said we needed to take advantage of the position we have put ourselves in by continuing our good form.

9/25/19 at Montreal Impact - NACL Group - 4231 Williams, Farrell, O’Neill, Abdel Latif, Baah, Duylio, Evans, Nguyen, Traver, Agudelo, Mansilla vs 442. The players were up for this one and played a professional game. After a tight first half that saw no shots on goal from either team as the Impact tried to park the bus and counter I gave the players a little more freedom in the second half and Alvaro Traver quickly grabbed us the 1-0 lead. When It was still 1-0 at 60 minutes and Montreal got more aggressive after their substitutions we changed to our 4141 and hit them on a counter. Win 2-0

New England Revolution (2-0-0) at Montreal Impact (1-1-1)

2-0

11 Shots 5

2 On Target 2

6 Fouls 7

60% Possession 40%

Goals: Traver (47) Agudelo(69)

Was that the same team that completely surrendered to Toronto a few days ago and then let in goals for fun against Chicago? It didn't look like it. We have qualified for the NACL quarterfinals with one game to go in group play, which is at home against Saprissa. Getting the midfield right is key, we have struggled since losing both Park and Donny. As good as Pownall has been, he has struggled lately, and as frustrating as Duylio has been he has been better, so we went with Evans and Duylio in the midfield and Traver ahead of them and it looked good, for one game at least.

We made it through the group stage with ease, in sharp contrast to our struggles in the MLS regular season which has left us on the outside looking in. This means all our eggs are in one basket, as they say. I guess we are lucky to still have a basket at least.

9/28/19 at Toronto FC - MLS G30 - 4231 Williams, Farrell, O’Neill, Baah, Munoz, Duylio, Evans, Nguyen, Traver, Agudelo, Mansilla vs 4123 DM wide. The first 30 minutes were extremely eventful as we jumped out to a 2-0 lead and thought we had made it 3-0 when Mansilla slammed home a nice Andrew Farrell cross, but Andrew was flagged for offsides and on the ensuing free kick Toronto launched an attack that ended with a nice Jozy Altidore goal to make it 2-1. Just as I was starting to fear that was the signal of our collapse we responded as Mansilla got his goal, and then added two more and we were up 5-1 by the half. Giving up 5 goals in the first half would have KO’d most teams but Toronto came out with their typical second half onslaught and made the game 5-2 and piled up shots and chances until I finally called it and switched to our 4141 which limited them to speculative shots for the rest of the game. Win 5-2

New England Revolution (10-7-12) at Toronto FC (16-6-8)

5-2

11 Shots 19

8 On Target 7

7 Fouls 11

44% Possession 56%

Goals: Nguyen (1) Farrell (15) Altidore (22) Mansilla (27,41,43) Giovinco (48)

Somehow despite his dominant performance and hat trick Braian Mansilla didn’t win player of the week as Vancouver’s Nicolas Mezquida, who also had a hat trick won. Braian did win player of the month however, with 6 goals in 4 games.

There hasn’t been any visible fallout, good or bad from my confrontation with Frannie last month. Gianna says everything is quiet on the business front, there haven’t been any developments, positive or negative - just like our team practices this month. That means things are still dire for her business, which she seems to have accepted. It’s hard for me to see her being pessimistic about things, but she seems resigned to accept whatever will be, which is good I guess..